Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago docs case fights for survival in 'MAGA-friendly' judge’s courtroom

20 June 2024

This Friday, June 21 in her federal courtroom in Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon will hear arguments from Donald Trump supporters who claim that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had no business appointing special counsel Jack Smith to investigate Donald Trump.

The Daily Beast's José Pagliery, in an article published on June 20, emphasizes that the case should have gone to trial by now — instead, Smith is "fighting to keep the case alive."

"Had everything gone according to plan," Pagliery explains, "Donald Trump would be on trial right now in South Florida for hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago ocean estate after leaving the White House. The politician, still licking his wounds from his New York conviction, would be desperately fighting to stave off a humiliating distinction: becoming the first former president to be branded a two-time felon."

Pagliery continues, "Instead, a very different trial of sorts will be underway this Friday at a tiny federal courthouse in the sunny beach city of Fort Pierce — one that will awkwardly put the Department of Justice on the defensive, with government lawyers asserting their most fundamental right to even try this historic case."

During the June 21 hearing, Pagliery observes, "all the pressure will be on" Smith thanks to the "MAGA-friendly" Cannon.

Pagliery writes, "The power dynamic has shifted, and it's all due to one person: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon…. Her MAGA-friendly rulings have managed to delay the case so badly that it now looks as if Trump might escape trial altogether if he manages to win the national election in 138 days. After all, what's the point of prosecuting a man who, as president, can order his attorney general to simply kill the investigation — or choose to pardon himself?"

Trump, the Daily Beast reporter adds, has "made clear he has no intention of respecting the DOJ's independence if he returns to office, despite the fact that both options are red lines of corruption so familiar to banana republics around the world."

"Trump's lawyers want the indictment to be dismissed in its entirety, a bid premised on the notion that Smith is powerless and his appointment 'invalid,'" Pagliery notes. "They point to the Constitution, arguing that his 'office of the special counsel' wasn't first approved by Congress…. Smith will be fighting to keep the case alive."

The reporter adds, "If Cannon rules against him, legal scholars say he might have the ammunition he needs to finally request the judge's recusal from the case. But no matter what happens on Friday, Judge Cannon has already gotten what she wanted. The case has been pushed back so far that legal experts say it's unlikely it will go to trial before the election."

Read José Pagliery's full article for the Daily Beast at this link (subscription required).

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