Humiliating: Judge in Trump doc case rebuked for hearing flimsy arguments and delaying case

Trump's legal troubles shifted to Florida today in his latest attempt to get his classified documents

case

dismissed. Judge Aen Canon holds a

hearing

lasting several hours. Trump's lawyers argue that Jack Smith's appointment as special counsel is unconstitutional and say the law must appoint a special counsel. categorized as a principal official and subject to Senate confirmation and holding that the Attorney General's ability to appoint a special counsel with the authority of a US attorney is like appointing an appointment. Shadow government

judge

Cannon was skeptical of this argument, refusing to say that the appointment is actually a realistic risk when there are well-defined statutes regarding the appointment of the Attorney General Authority the office of special counsel refuting the defense

arguments

saying he ignores precedent would have a pernicious consequence quote Smith's office pointing to history and precedent citing renowned

case

s that have already decided that attorneys The general has the authority to appoint independent special counsel, experts on both sides and wonders why brought this motion to a

hearing

first.

He listened to Trump's former lawyer, Tai Cobb. The status of the independent Council was fully examined in the Supreme Court and more. confirmed the fact that her not denying most of these emotions without a hearing is nonsense, the fact that Trump can get a hearing with the flimsiest of

arguments

is shocking as Judge Canon continues to face calls to withdraw from the new case . report revealing that two Florida

judge

s privately urged her to reject the case when she was assigned it last year, given Canon's lack of experience, we know, of course, that she refused. Canon has postponed this trial indefinitely to discuss these pretrial motions.

The hearing resumes Monday with Jack Smith's request to modify the terms of the Trump bomb I'm with me now is Ronado Marotti, a former federal prosecutor and Politico legal affairs colonist, and Anush Cardor, a former federal prosecutor and a jockey. Politico senior, gentlemen, thank you for helping us get started. Rado, I'm going to To start with you, I want to say that I heard the arguments that were coming from the Trump side and I address my question from the beginning: does that position have any basis? I mean, you had Emil Boie say that Jack Smith doesn't have enough oversight over his decision-making, but we both know that if there were more coordination between Jack Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland, Trump's position would be that there is too much oversight over Jack Smith, yeah, I actually think Trump C maybe has Actually he would have been trying to put the Special Council in a box, essentially regardless of what they answered, it's one of those questions like, you know?

How do I look in this dress or how do I compare to my friends where you don't want to? you don't know how to answer, no matter what the answer is, you're potentially going to lose. I think, as a practical matter, the hearing ended before it began, you know, as a practical matter, eight. different judges had already decided this issue, they all sided with the Council's special regulations saying they were legal and, as the special prosecutor, you know, argued and made that point clear, you even judge Cannon, who is really very leaning toward Trump. he was questioning the arguments Trump made.

I think the question here is really the process, why was there a hearing, why hasn't a trial date been set, really the timing and the process is the issue here, not the outcome, which it is. There will almost certainly be a denial of Trump's motion, yes, but you know that years past is no prologue with someone like Judge Canon. We've seen her ignore precedent and make decisions that actually cause the 11th Circuit to come back and tell her she was wrong. His Politico colleagues have written that Trump's claim is, quote, a wild bet because numerous courts have rejected nearly identical constitutional challenges to other special counsels, simply by referencing the fact that on eight previous occasions this particular challenge has been closed. in other jurisdictions, but why is Judge Cannon considering this about Kush? file separate notices of supplemental authority not to exceed five double-spaced pages, yes, I know it is a real mystery why he felt he needed to hold a hearing for this particular issue.

I mean, it's the first in a multi-day hearing. set of audiences um, I think an optimistic way of looking at this is that she's actually trying to respond to some of the criticism that she's received and she's actually trying to overcome these issues. You are a somewhat inexperienced judge who may not be totally sure of your mastery of the subject. The things are to bring lawyers to hold or oral arguments, ask them some questions. I agree with Ronado that the outcome here should be. One particular argument is rejected, but I also agree with you. I mean, we can't be sure in this area.

I mean, I would have said the same thing about Trump's offer for a special master. And, of course, she resolved that in Trump's favor. an unprecedented trend as well, um, so we'll see, at the end of the day, what you choose to do with this special Rado Tip. Jacks Smith's office warns Judge Canon of, quote, pernicious consequences if the defenses theory is adopted. Let's go over this a little bit, let's see what happens if Judge Canon agrees with Donald Trump and grants the motion to dismiss based on an unconstitutional appointment of Jack Smith, what are the next steps?

Well, it's certainly going to go up. an appeal, you know, as I alluded to a moment ago, this is not the first time that Judge Canon, you know, has faced an issue and in the past, I will say that you know, as he pointed out, she came to the El wrong side of that issue issued an unprecedented ruling, finally the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and actually Smackdown reversed that decision that she made, so that's one consequence, but another consequence is that you know this is not the only lawyer special that we have had. in fact, there is another special counsel right now who is litigating cases against another individual, Hunter Biden, so this is an argument that others could make in another context and essentially the point being made here to the judge is this failure that you have is going to have potentially broader consequences uh let's not do anything stupid, but focus completely on this single case that you mentioned a few minutes ago about the possibility that lack of experience on behalf of the alien Canon may be dictating the fact After we had a several-hour hearing today, the New York Times reported that Judge Canon was approached by two of her colleagues on the federal court, one of whom, I should note, is supposedly Chief Judge Cecilia Anaga for the District South Florida and they both told him you know what you probably shouldn't take this assignment it was a blind docket for those of you who are questioning it it was a blind docket meaning he was randomly assigned to judge Canon and yet we've seen things like this that make them more than a little suspicious, I would say that in Kush, for example, the magistrate judges and any federal court are the ones that handle some of the more mundane hearings on some of the topics most related to Discovery, if not the most pretrial motions, and then the district.

The trial itself is actually conducted by the court judge in this case by Bruce Reinhardt, who is the magistrate judge assigned to Judge Cannon, who signed the search warrants for Mara Lago. She hasn't let Reinhardt touch any of these pre-ra motions that have moved things on the cushion, so what's going on here with the fact that other people, including a chief judge, told her maybe not Would you like to take this case? Well, look, it looks like you want to hold on to this and you want to hold on to this. to control the resolution of all the problems, I think it would have been better for the country, for everyone except Trump, essentially, if she had followed that advice and passed the case, but you know, that's uh, uh, you .

I know it was a very serious question for her. I'm sure you know she got a little angry at the idea. um. It would also have been better because, as you suggested, delegate some of this to a magistrate. In fact, there are quite a few. Fact-intensive Discovery issues that are currently being litigated in front of her, and as you and Rado know, those types of fact-intensive Discovery issues tend to be the ones that are perfectly ripe for the justices to handle because They have the time and experience to delve into them. that and provide recommendations to the district judge, so it would have been better for her to take advantage of that option as well, but you know, at the end of the day, you know, I can't, you know, I put myself in her mind.

The best I can get from this is that she feels that she needs to retain ownership of the case in its entirety.