U.S. District judge Aileen Cannon struck a paragraph from Donald Trump's indictment that likely benefits him — but should not derail the case against him, an analyst wrote Tuesday.
The Florida-based judge rejected a defense motion Monday seeking to dismiss charges for "pleading deficiencies" and excised a paragraph that describes Trump allegedly showing classified documents to a representative from his political action committee.
But MSNBC columnist Jordan Rubin argued that her move would not impact the outcome of the case.
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"To be clear, Trump isn’t directly charged with the conduct in that paragraph, so this isn’t a dismissal of any charges," Rubin wrote. "Rather, the judge explained in her order that the information in that paragraph was included as another crime, wrong or act besides those specifically charged."
In fact, while Cannon deemed the allegation to be inappropriate for the indictment, she left open the possibility that the episode could come up during the trial pending further litigation on the matter.
"So while the government would, of course, prefer that Cannon hadn’t stricken that language, it’s not a move that should derail the Florida federal case against the former president," Rubin wrote. "That derailment is being accomplished by Cannon’s overall slow-walking of the case, which doesn’t have a trial date and which Trump will surely crush if he wins the White House again in November."
Cannon introduced additional delay Tuesday by granting a request from Trump's attorneys to delay a deadline until July 8 to disclose which experts he might call at trial "should there be one," as the former president's attorneys said.
The former president has been charged with mishandling classified documents and obstructing justice to avoid returning the government materials to the National Archives, but the schedule set by Cannon virtually ensures the case will not come to trial before the November election.
