When Biden was declared winner of the 2020 election Trump’s Save America PAC went into overdrive, appealing for donations to fund all the legal challenges to “stop the steal.” It quickly raised some 125 million. Trump even spent some of it. (Shocking I know) But not close to all of it. He also kept raising money for it and started another PAC which claimed to be about raising money for election (his own re-election and to help other GOP candidates) but in the fine print allowed that the money could be “diverted.” Guess what? It was! He also had a grip on the RNC donor list and sent out daily appeals for small donor donations, and again all of them allowed for diverting the money to whatever he wanted to use it for. For the cherry on top, he browbeat the RNC to cover a whole bunch of his legal expenses.
Add all that up and Trump had a ton of money available to spend on legal stuff. As I noted he did shell out some of that money but not close to all of it. I did some looking and while tens of millions have been spent, in the murky world of PACs and SUPER PACs it’s hard to be sure but when you consider all that like I said he’s got many tens of millions at his disposal. But what about his campaign you ask.
That’s the kicker. Trump wanted hold off formally declaring as long as he could for a reason. ALL that money he had raised would be locked up (so to speak) and unavailable to his Presidential campaign the moment he filed his paperwork. He’d have to start an entirely new campaign PAC! But with all his legal troubles the dude needs well north of fity million, perhaps closer to a hundred million before all is said and done to defend himself. And he’s got it.
He just doesn’t want to have to spend it! At least not for lawyers.
Why this matters is what was said, and not said in Judge “Loose” Cannon’s court yesterday. Trump’s lawyers want an indefinite (literally) postponement on a trial. Well, by law that’s not possible. The judge has to set a trial date and the only question is when. Smith’s team is ready to go. Normally they’d just be getting started in handing over discovery but they did all that right after the arraignment last month, withholding only the actual classified material – until Trump’s lawyers could get security clearances. There’s an actual process for accelerated granting of both interim and permanent clearances and this situation meets the criteria for doing so.
Remember how startled we were last month when in her first chat with everyone she gave Trump’s lawyers less than a week to get their paperwork in? Well, one troubling sign that has gone unnoticed is that while a couple did, there are Trump lawyers who will be at the defense table that not only failed to meet that deadline, but as of last week STILL hadn’t submitted their paperwork. Yet Cannon doesn’t even seem to have wagged her finger at them, much less shoved a legal Roman Candle up their butts and told them to get it done within a couple of days or get out their checkbooks.
Anyway, at the very least Trump’s lawyers are saying there is just sooooooooo much discovery they can’t possibly go through it all and be ready for trial until… after the 2024 election! It seems clear the judge isn’t going to go that far, but she appeared “sympathetic” enough to their “plight” that she might not set a date until late spring. Which golly gee with all the campaign stuff and other legal stuff Trump is dealing with might get pushed off. Until after the election!
(Part of why everyone wanted this case to get filed was it was the simplest and most straightforward one. One issue – crimes of illegally taking and holding on to highly classified national security documents and refusing to return them. And lying about having returned it all when that wasn’t the case. At most we were told by experts it’s a case that could be tried in a few weeks. All the other cases, from the two state cases to the January 6 case are much more complex and given how AG Garland dicked around and didn’t finally appoint a Special Prosecutor to move things along until late last Nov. precious time has been lost. This Florida case was THE case where the government had Trump dead-to-rights, with documents, video and even Trump’s own words (not to mention credible witness testimony including from former lawyers of his) and only jury nullification will keep him from being convicted.
But his lawyers say, there’s all that discovery. However, they are blowing smoke up the judge’s butt. Yes, there are 800k plus pages of documents from notes, memos, transcripts of witness testimony etc. that have been provided already. And thousands of hours of video. However, most of it is unrelated to what Trump has been charged with. That’s why the prosecutors provided their “road map” of the stuff that will actually be used at trial (and anything related just to be safe) just to reduce the workload for the defense. If you want to know why Smith people gave Trump everything it’s simple. It shuts down any appeal that would claim prosecutors “withheld exculpatory information.” Saying it doesn’t make it so and if you gave the defense everything you had then they have to be able to point to something specific!
Here’s where we get to the heart of the matter. Yes, the defense can make mealy-mothed claims that “golly gee your honor we’d sure like to be able to trust the prosecutors but they are a bunch of meanies! The proof is that not only do they not accept everything our clients says and does as true and honorable they have gone and indicted him. Accused him, the most trustworthy, honorable and decent human being that has ever lived (sorry Jeebus) of lying! So we have to carefully check, then double and triple check every single thing.”
To which I say that’s what low level first/second year lawyers and paralegals are for! I’m sure there’s a small army of Regent and Bob Jones law school grads who’d jump at the chance to sign up to go through all those documents and videos looking for whatever they can that might help their false prophet! Hell, it probably wouldn’t even cost that much. Trump could set them up at his dump Doral resort and allocate a ballroom for them. Even spring for medical costs for bed bug bites! And comp them a weekly meal over at Mar A Lago. They could go through it all in a couple of months at most. That would still leave plenty of time for the lawyers that will be with Trump (and Nauta) in court to prepare for a December trial.
Trump’s got a PAC with more than enough money, money that can’t be spent on his campaign but CAN be spent on legal costs to cover a million or even two for this! Which is something I would have thought might have been brought up in court by prosecutors yesterday. Then again, maybe this is something Smith held back for strategic reasons.
Let’s say Cannon, who has promised a decision soon is “moved” enough by the defense’s arguments that she sets a trial date well into next year. That’s something that can be appealed. Yes, as well all know criminal defendants have rights which include the right to a speedy trial. Which they can formally waive. But prosecutors also have a client. The people. And the people are equally entitled to their day in court, and a fair and speedy trial. In balancing this things typically favor defendants but if they abuse the process it can hurt them. Trump as we know is a legendary abuser. Of anything and everything/anyone. Including the legal process. Judges have become wise to his game playing, and while some (Cannon for instance) seem willing to play along as you move up the chain to the appellate level there is a growing LACK of tolerance for Trump’s claims.
Is it possible Smith has given Cannon some rope to hang herself with? That he has a response prepared that says “Look your Honors, this guy has a lifetime of dragging things out and it’s in the public interest that he have a fair, but speedy trial. We’ve bent over backwards and taken unusual steps to provide his legal team adequate time to prepare a defense. Despite the number of counts in the indictment the issues are limited in scope, straightforward and the only complicating factor is the handling of classified material in open court. And there have been other trials with other defendants that have provided solid procedures for doing so.”
Given how hard the appellate court slapped down Cannon before, even if they don’t brutally slap her down on this they might still side with Smith and his team. Best of all, if Cannon isn’t careful she could provide the means for her being removed from the case!
Well, the last part is speculation at this point but I figure by the end of the week we’ll know if Cannon intends to help Trump out by moving out (by a lot) the trial date. Stay tuned.
I already posted this before quoting Murph. It still applies.
This is it, the perfect summation, concise and succinct.
“It revolves around three incredibly simple questions. Was Trump in possession of classified national security documents? Was Trump entitled legally to be in possession of such documents? And did Trump undertake criminal steps to hide said documents in order to maintain them when their return was demanded? That’s it folks. That’s all this is about in a nutshell. About as complicated as a game of 52 pickup.”
It SHOULD be a short trial, and a short jury recess.