'Caginess': Ex-prosecutor shows how Judge Cannon might be 'in the tank for Trump'
Right-wing Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, has made moves that signal she will likely delay the trial by several months, decreasing the chances it can be held before the election at all.
It's yet another move that shows that she is deferential to the defendant who appointed her to the bench in the first place, said former prosecutor Harry Litman on Thursday's edition of MSNBC's "All In."
"I just want to make sure I understand," said anchor Chris Hayes. "What you are saying is, the litigation of this question of what documents can and can't be used in the trial itself is not going to start until March 1st, and because we know that that will be time-consuming itself, then that's why we think it will push?"
"March 1st, at the earliest," amended Litman. "In the United States we have a very routine motion that she denied with no reason summarily. Just have Trump identify when he is going to do that. And as she has done repeatedly now, she's not just denying it but there's an element of pique toward the [prosecution] and I think there's something even worse here. There's a kind of caginess about it."
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"It's very telling to me that she made these interior delays but didn't change the trial date, because it keeps her from having any really kind of blatant thing for the U.S. to challenge," Litman continued. "So it all sounds just like process and scheduling, and they don't really have the opening to go to the 11th Circuit. And remember, she came into this case with a misadventure in the search warrant litigation that means she has a strike against her. If she does something really out there, the U.S. can go and recuse her now, 11th Circuit. But what she is doing instead is going to the edge of delaying things but not pulling the trigger on it, and that doesn't give the DOJ great fodder to fight her."
In other words, Litman added, "It's not just she is continually going for Trump but that she is now doing it almost strategically. So there's a brooding question. Is she in the tank for Trump or not — I don't even think it matters. I think she is regularly calling it a delay that he wants and all indications are she will push it at least many months now."
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