Judge Cannon has Jack Smith in 'legal purgatory' and may force his hand: prosecutor
Appearing on MSNBC's "Way Too Early" on Friday morning, Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg accused U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon of trying to protect Donald Trump from being tried for obstruction of justice.
Speaking with host Jonathan Lemire, the Florida prosecutor stated the Trump-appointed judge has plunged special counsel Jack Smith into "legal purgatory" with her latest ruling.
Late Thursday, Cannon denied Trump's bid to use the Presidential Records Act (PRA) as cover for hoarding sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort but still left a door open for the former president's lawyers to bring it up again during the trial — which still does not have a start date.
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According to Aronberg, Cannon is giving Smith little room to turn to the 11th Court of Appeals to intercede on his behalf.
After arguing that "Jack Smith is in a bit of a trick box. He wants to essentially call the judge's manager but the judge has to approve it first, and she hasn't done so yet," he was asked by Lemire what is next up for the special counsel.
"You've said the tone of special counsel Smith's filing shows he's right up against the edge, basically he's fed up with what he's heard from this judge and he might even consider going to the 11th Circuit Court and try to push them to remove Judge Cannon from the case. Do we think there's a possibility that could actually happen?" Lemire prompted.
"Judge Cannon has given Jack Smith reason to do so, but it's a high burden to reach," Aronberg replied. "If he thought he could get her removed he would have done so. He may try to file a motion to prevent Donald Trump from using this PRA defense at trial, and thus it wouldn't appear in the jury instructions. We'll see what happens, but then Judge Cannon has to hear the motion and rule on it and she can do a bunch of things to hurt Jack Smith here. He's in a bit of legal purgatory here. He can't really appeal that order so he's going to have to find other means — maybe the motion to recuse the judge is the option he chooses."
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