Dem
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GOP
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Donald Trump's various criminal cases have each served up a bunch of curveballs. Yesterday, there were two more of them, albeit small-to-medium curveballs, rather than the giant-sized ones that the Supreme Court likes to toss.
First up, in New York, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg advised Judge Juan Merchan that he (Bragg) is open to a 30-day delay in Trump's hush-money trial. At issue is a cache of documents that federal prosecutors very recently turned over to the DA, and that he then turned over to Trump's defense team. Trump's attorneys asked for the case to be dismissed on this basis (naturally) or, failing that, for a 90-day postponement. So, Bragg's 30 day proposal is, effectively, a counteroffer. There is no indication as to whether Merchan will delay 30 days, 90 days, some amount of days in between those two, or zero days. Until the Judge says differently, the case is scheduled to go to trial in 10 days.
The second curveball came from Florida, where Judge Aileen Cannon actually made a ruling that is sort of adverse to Trump's interests. Essentially, since Team Trump thinks Cannon is in the bag for them, they're making extra-wild legal arguments to try to score a Get Out of Jail Free card. One of those arguments is that the Espionage Act, under which Trump is charged, should be struck down as unconstitutional because it is too vague. Trump's lawyers made that argument on Wednesday, and Cannon rejected it yesterday, at least temporarily, which is warp speed for her.
In court yesterday, with Trump himself looking on, his counsel tried a new argument, namely that the Presidential Records Act entitles him to declare any and all records from his administration as his own personal property. Ipso facto, what he was holding at Mar-a-Lago did not belong to the government, it belonged to him. According to people in the courtroom, Cannon did not seem amenable to this argument. So, maybe she'll reject that one today.
With all of this said, Cannon did not put an end to the first argument, anymore than Judge Scott McAfee permanently killed the half-dozen counts in the Georgia case earlier this week. What she really did is deny the motion without prejudice, calling it "premature." You can read the order here, if you wish; it's only two pages. So, this could well come up again in the future.
In other words, we still believe Cannon is not fair and impartial, and that she leans strongly in Trump's direction. That said, there's only so far she can bend, at risk of having the case taken away from her and/or at risk of having sanctions imposed on her. And in making their arguments, Team Trump is effectively conceding the core elements of the government's case (i.e., Trump definitely had the documents in his possession, and definitely knew what they were). This does not seem the wisest approach to us, but we guess desperate times call for desperate measures, especially when you think the judge is in your pocket. (Z)