I had been hearing quiet sniglets of this being bandied around all weekend, but it was former GOP representative David Jolly who tied it together with a pretty pink bow. And Smith may already be laying the groundwork for it.
I have written a couple of articles in which I showed how Special Counsel Jack Smith is giving a master class in how to manage and manipulate incompetent defense counsel and an inexperienced judge. Things like silencing Trump’s delay guns by not giving him anything to ask for a hearing on, and jumping the gun by providing discovery to the defense negating their argument about the months of time they’ll need to prepare.
In that protective order, Smith asked judge Aileen Cannon to issue an order barring Trump or his team from maintaining or disseminating any non classified information to the public. Judge Cannon issue that order today. As I wrote previously, telling Traitor Tot that he can’t do something is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. It’s Smith who will control which shiny balls roll before Trump’s nose, and when Trump violates the order and gabs, now the judge is pissed at him.
But everybody already knows that Trump is going to everything in his power to push this trial back as far as possible, hoping to can it until after the general election. Smith gets that, and that’s why, when he unsealed the indictments, he put both the Trump team as well as the trial judge on notice that he was ready to move forward with speed and dispatch.
And here’s where both Special Counsel Smith, as well as the 2024 GOP primary field can use Trump’s own campaign rhetoric against him to hold his feet to the fire. Trump’s personally spoken defense is a three chord opera in the key of stupid. A) The whole thing is a partisan witch hunt. B) The deep state is weaponized to keep him from becoming President again. C) He has every right to every document, since he followed the Presidential Records Act to the letter. If this is true, then it’s Trump who should be screaming for the earliest possible trial date, so he can have it behind him before the Iowa caucuses, flush with victory and vindication.
The funny thing is, this really isn’t a complicated case. In fact, Smith may have made his own life harder by posting those Trump employee photos of boxes stacked everywhere but Trump’s pointy head. It did a nice job of graphically showing both the public as well as thhe potential jury pool just how much sh*t El Pendejo Presidente stole, but they have a legal term for that. They call it window dressing.
Look, at the heart of it, Trump is charged with unlawful possession and retention of 31 classified documents. That’s it, and you can bet that those 31 documents were carefully chosen as being the ones with the greatest impact, yet the easiest for the intelligence team to sanitize so as to not give any actual secrets away in showing them to the jury.
All those boxes? Who cares? The Pentagon papers. Old copies of Hustler. Trump isn’t being charged with those, so who needs to look at them? Smith will spend more time showing the jury all the efforts the NI and DOJ made to get the records back than the records themselves.
Smith is already giving the defense an 8-12 week head start on all of the non classified material they’re entitled to in discovery, things like physical evidence and witness statements. Since this case is all they’re working on, they should make good headway. Once their security clearances come through, Smith can make arrangements for a secured facility for them to see and examine those documents. What else is left after that.
And Smith is handing the sniveling sycophants running against Trump a nice shiny shiv for his back, one where they don’t have to confront him directly. It goes something like this;
Candidate Trump is campaigning on the fact that the Justice Department is weaponized against him to keep him from winning another term. Whatever the politics, Special Counsel Smith is pushing for an early trial. Candidate Trump is accused of possessing and illegally holding classified documents. President Trump claims he possessed those documents legally under the Presidential Records Act. The simplest solution is for candidate Trump to agree to the earliest possible court date, and get this whole sorry episode behind him before the Iowa caucuses.
How does His Lowness respond to that? It’s clean, it’s simple, it’s direct, it fits on a bumper sticker, Get. Your. Ass. To. Court! If they all start chanting this in rhythm, like the Benedictine monks, people are going to notice and start to wonder. Especially if Smith drives home his desire for a speedy trial in every motion he files before the court.
If they do this at every stop for a week, Trump won’t even be able to go on television anymore, not even FUX News. Because the question is a natural. Look, Mr. President, there isn’t much doubt that you possessed the documents, the FBI found them at Mar-A-Lago. If in fact you followed the Presidential Records Act, and possessed these documents legally, wouldn’t the simple solution be to call the Special Counsel’s bluff, go to trial and prove your case?
How does Trump respond? His whole schtick is that Smith is trying to smear him through the primaries to keep him from being President again. And he has sworn the documents were his legally so often now that nobody even listens to him anymore. Why not just go to court, prove they’re yours, and then flip Smith double barrel birds? And they can just keep on asking this simple question, making Trump look evasive. And you want a way to guarantee Trump never sets foot on a debate stage? Keep asking this question.
As I’ve said before, Trump is at heart a chickensh*t. As long as everybody keeps asking that question, Trump is going to run from it like a vampire from sunlight. Simply because he doesn’t have an answer. But where does he go? He can’t go on FUX, he can’t have reporters on Trump Force 1 on his way to a rally, because that’s all they’ll want to talk about. Moderate two time Trump voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida are already expressing interest in debarking the Trump train, and catching a bus instead. Properly exploited, this isn’t going to help.
You pose the perfect question – why wouldn’t you want to quickly clear your name in court? How he answers it will provide late night comedians with material for months, if the writer’s guild ever gets a contract.
DOJ evidence photos also show many of the 31 docs central to the charges with extended borders and color mismatching indicating they are COPIES of the original classified docs. It is also illegal to make copies of highly classified docs. Other pics show a copy machine present. Which leads to the likely question/answer: Trump is still holding/hiding many of the originals to use to sell to US enemies or to hold to leverage threats in potential negotiations to reduce charges. Would really be good if Smith uncovers enough further evidence to justify getting a Judge to grant search warrants at Bedminster, Trump Tower Manhattan and Seven Springs.
As I wrote last week there is a section in the U.S. Code that defines the whole “speedy trial” issue. The clock is already ticking on the 70 day window during which a case goes to trial. Once the clock starts the government can’t stop it so when they file charges they damn well better be prepared to head to court and prove them beyond a reasonable doubt in court! However, a defendant can waive the right to a speedy trial and as we know the average defendant seldom goes to trial in 70 days or less. BUT, to waive their right to speedy trial they have to FORMALLY petition the court to waive the 70 day law.
Trump’s instinct which he’s put into practice his entire life when the law (even civil law instead of criminal) is to delay, delay and delay some more. He’s gotten so good at it during his long and disgusting life he makes the typical defendant who views delay as almost as good as an acquital look like an Olympic Gold Medal sprinter! With the spotlight shining right on him with the intensity of the sun but focused like a laser beam Trump is going to have to say he does NOT want a speedy trial, and why. No doubt it will be a lame a$$ excuse but with any other defendant that’s almost always good enough and it will be for Trump. The only question will be how much delay he’s granted.
But he’s going to (via his lawyers) have to stand there in court, ON THE RECORD and say in effect “Your Honor, I formally waive my right to a speedy trial.” Because… I have to wash my hair, someone let a dog loose at Mar A Lago and it ate my lawyer’s notes or whatever. Coming up with wildly crazy excuses could make for a fun game! BUT, it opens the door for what I suggested last week. Massive taunting and trolling. And as you point out even Faux Nooze has probably gotten marching orders from Murdoch telling them to press Trump relentlessly on why he doesn’t just go to trial and get it over with? of course even those hacks know the answer which is that he’s guilty as hell. And that even in the venue he wanted he can’t COUNT on a hung jury. (But even if that happens Smith will go ahead and retry the case!) It remains to be seen how many GOPer Presidential hopefuls will challenge Trump on why he doesn’t just go to trial.
I know as well as you do what they SHOULD do but I have little confidence most of them will hold his feet to the fire.
none of them will. all of them are promising to pardon him if they are elected.
You say that as if a Republican promise had any value.
Which it doesn’t. hehehehe