Opinion: How Judge Aileen Cannon once again ruled in Trump’s favor | CNN
Don’t misunderstand Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision Friday to stick to the established May date of the Mar-a-Lago trial. Though it could be read as a defeat for former President Donald Trump, as he wanted to push the date back further, in fact the defendant has just won a partial victory for his top legal strategy — dragging out the cases against him until after the 2024 election.
It’s crucially important that Cannon not buy in to his strategy, nor the judges in his three other criminal cases. (He has denied wrongdoing in all four.) Luckily, there are a few ways judges can stop his delay tactics, if they are willing to apply them.
Cannon is the Florida federal judge presiding over the case examining whether Trump mishandled classified documents at his Florida home. While she kept the same trial date, she handed Trump some of the time he sought by extending some of the case’s pretrial deadlines. The more the pretrial work bunches up against the trial date, the more likely the trial will be delayed — too much work to get done all at once.
Moreover, Trump hasn’t actually lost his bid to delay the trial date: The judge ruled the issue was “premature” to decide at this point, and noted her agreement with Trump’s complaints about the volume of evidence his lawyers must sort through before trial (his major argument for delaying). In court, one delay often invites requests for others, so Trump still has reason to hope… Read More
