In a recent interview on CNN, legal analyst Elie Honig suggested that Special Counsel Jack Smith is about to try a legal maneuver in Florida in order to strengthen his case against the presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
In a recent court filing, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a scathing rebuke of Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida where he claims her jury instructions for the classified documents case in Mar-a-Lago are a “fundamentally flawed legal premise” which may favor the defendant.
CNN’s top legal analyst discussed with Dana Bash Smith’s filing against Judge Cannon and suggested that Jack Smith would most likely file an appeal with a higher court to have her removed from the Trump case, noting that the case is moving very slowly in an attempt to try and get a conviction before the election.
Honig suggested the special counsel’s “big issues” with the judge may be the delay of the trial and Bash responded with “do you have any sense that, as part of that, he is setting the stage for a motion to get rid of the judge?”
“So Jack Smith clearly has had it with Judge Aileen Cannon, I think that oozes out of this briefing as you said, it’s quite a sensational filing from a prosecutor,” Honig answered. “I do think there is some frustration that’s obvious with the pace of this as well as the substance of it.”
“Now, one move that Jack Smith could make here, and he sort of alludes to it in the briefing, is A, If the judge sticks by this ruling, if the judge says, ‘I am going to instruct the jury on this Presidential Records Act defense,’ then Jack Smith makes clear, ‘I will appeal that and I will appeal it now,” Honig continued. “The other thing that Jack Smith might do is ask the appeals court to remove Judge Cannon from the case. Now, that’s quite a drastic step. It is very rarely, not never, but very rarely taken by prosecutors, and there’s no assurance that they win.”
“But the sort of irony of all of this is if Jack Smith appeals this, and if Jack Smith asks the appeals court to remove Judge Cannon, that will delay this more than anything that’s happened so far,” Honig said.