'Look at the jury pool': CNN legal analyst singles out which trial Trump wants first
With Donald Trump facing major federal criminal trials in Georgia, Washington, D.C. and Florida, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig explained to his colleagues that he believes the former president is fine with the Florida Mar-a-Lago documents case proceeding first — but not because the judge presiding over it is one of his own appointees.
Speaking with host John Berman, Honig said the obstruction of justice case that Jack Smith is bringing in Florida may be the most rock-solid for special counsel Jack Smith when it comes to evidence — but the embattled former president believes that's the case where he might find the most sympathetic jurors.
"Do you think they're less afraid of the facts of the Mar-a-Lago documents case, which I think a lot of people see is quite damning toward Donald Trump, or perhaps something else about the Florida case?" Berman asked.
"Great question," Honig replied. "I think it's the jury, not the facts that's driving Donald Trump's team calculation here and, by the way, rightly, so."
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"If you've ever practiced in federal court criminal cases, it's all about the jury," he continued. "I actually think the facts are stronger against Donald Trump in the Florida case, the documents case, than they are in the January 6 case, but look at the potential jury pool."
"If you're looking at this from Donald Trump's perspective, you got 5 percent of the vote in D.C. That means 95 percent of the voters in D.C. were against you in 2020, but Donald Trump won Florida and even if we're limiting it to the southern counties where they're going to draw this jury pool, Donald Trump got maybe 40 percent of the vote there."
"So if you're thinking about what a Florida jury is going to look like, inevitably, you're going to have a good sizable handful of Donald Trump voters and political supporters on that jury," he said. "Now, jurors are supposed to put aside their political and personal views, but they are human beings. Take my word for it, they are going to act to some extent based on where they're coming from."
Trump is in court in Florida Friday for a hearing a which Judge Aileen Cannon is expected to set a new trial date. Currently, it's scheduled to begin in May. The election interference case in D.C. has been delayed indefinitely after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that it would hear the ex-president's arguments that he was immune to prosecution. That hearing is set for April.
Trump is also facing business fraud charges in New York over hush money payments he's accused of making to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Though that case is scheduled to be the first to go to trial, with a scheduled date of March 25, it's a state case rather than federal.
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