In the latest filing in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, former President Donald Trump's attorneys levied attacks not just at special counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting the case, but at Attorney General Merrick Garland, accusing him of "inappropriately" seeking a speedy trial.
The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that anyone accused of a crime has the right to a speedy trial. The problem is that Trump wants to hold off as long as possible.
"The Special Counsel's Office chose to bring this case and has taken unprecedented steps to fuel biased press coverage and public interest in the proceedings in order to interfere with President Trump's leading campaign for the presidency," stated the filing. "These steps have included seeking the unsealing of the warrant used to raid Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 and numerous public statements about the Office's politically motivated prosecutions of President Trump."
Those statements, the filing continued, included "conspicuously timed and tellingly defensive public statements by the Attorney General, released by CNN on January 19, 2024, in which he inappropriately sought to place DOJ's imprimatur behind the Office's untenable demand for a 'speedy trial' in this case and on the lawless charges filed in the District of Columbia."
This comes at the same time the former president has filed an unusual, sweeping motion seeking a huge trove of communications at the Justice Department in an effort to find misconduct in the case.
Presiding Judge Aileen Cannon, who has come under criticism from legal experts for her moves that appear designed to place a thumb on the scale for Trump, has not thus far pushed back the original trial date, but many observers believe she is laying the groundwork to do so, which could make it difficult to reach a verdict in this case before the election.
The other case Smith is trying, involving the federal election conspiracy charges, is currently on hold while appellate judges review Trump's claim that he had immunity as president for actions conducted while in office.