While Trump waits to see whether he is indicted in the January 6 investigation, the existing charges against him in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case continue forward, with a back and forth between his lawyers and special counsel Jack Smith on when to hold the trial.
Trump's lawyers, however, committed a serious blunder by demanding the Judge Aileen Cannon push the trial date out to after the 2024 presidential election — at least according to former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton on CNN Wednesday.
"I think the single most important question now on the legal side is whether any of these cases actually get to trial before the 2024 election," said Bolton. "That is what will be important. Not this indictment or that indictment or the next indictment. Which case if any gets to trial and does he get convicted?"
"Yeah," said anchor Kaitlan Collins. "We saw his attorneys in court for the documents investigation this week. Essentially arguing if they do have the case, that it should be for mid-November of next year. Do you think it is fair for voters to go to the polls, to cast their votes, if they don't know what the outcome of that trial or these trials potentially could be?"
"No," said Bolton flatly. "Any defendant is entitled to time to prepare his defense. But as they say, justice delayed is justice denied. If Trump really wanted justice, he would be saying, I want to go to trial as soon as possible and remove this cloud from over my candidacy. That's not what he wants to do."
"I happen to think his attorneys in the documents case made a substantial mistake by putting it fairly directly to the judge," added Bolton. "They don't want the case before the election. That shows the real strategy. And when you think about it, it is shocking. It may be difficult to have a traffic jam with all the cases, but I think it is the court's duty to make sure the public's interest is served as well. The defendant has a legitimate interest in time to prepare his or her defense. I think in this case, giving special privileges to someone just because they're a candidate for president is not consistent with the notion of one law for all."
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