'Fundamentally unsound': Legal expert dismantles Judge Cannon’s 'nonsensical' arguments in docs case
Judge Aileen Cannon has been a frequent source of frustration to special counsel Jack Smith, repeatedly delaying former President Donald Trump's trial in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Trump is now arguing that Smith should be sanctioned for openly criticizing Cannon's handling of the case. But during a Thursday, April 4 appearance on CNN, legal analyst Norm Eisen laid out some reasons why he believes that Smith — not Cannon — "is in the right here."
Eisen told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "The judge has made an inexplicable and troubling legal hypothesis that she asked Jack Smith to respond to, saying that simply by Donald Trump asking — can Donald Trump, simply by taking classified documents, the definition of an official document, simply by removing them from the White House when he leaves, do they become personal documents? That's nonsensical."
READ MORE: 'Increasingly worried': Report shows how Judge Cannon 'started to change' after Trump case
Eisen, who served as a co-counsel during Trump's first impeachment trial, stressed that there is "no legal basis" for Smith to be "sanctioned." And he described Cannon arguments as "fundamentally unsound," telling Blitzer, "It's Judge Cannon who is in trouble here, not Jack Smith."
During the interview, Eisen also discussed another criminal prosecution that Trump is facing: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money case.
Jury selection in Trump's hush money trial is scheduled to begin on Monday, April 15. And Eisen argued that "Trump and his lawyers are running out of delay options."
Eisen told Blitzer, "In a filing this week, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, pointed out that there had been at least eight attempts to delay this trial so far, all unsuccessful. The latest was the rejection of claims based on absolute immunity, the same issues that are being litigated by the United States Supreme Court in the Jack Smith DC case. But the judge found Trump brought that up too late. So, Trump's own delay victimized his delay attempt. This case is very likely going to trial, with jury selection starting on April 15."
READ MORE: Expert rips Cannon’s 'mind-boggling' rulings: 'If it were law school she'd be failing'
Watch the full video below or at this link.
