Donald Trump recently asked a judge to indefinitely suspend the federal criminal case against him until after the 2024 election, but Jack Smith's response should make the former president's attorneys embarrassed, according to a former federal prosecutor.
Smith "shredded the defense position in the opening paragraphs of his reply brief by pointing to something so elemental that the defense team should be embarrassed," according to former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance. For one, Vance explained, the judge must set a trial date, and isn't allowed to grant the request to grant a pause for that long.
"The Speedy Trial Act makes no provision for taking the put-it-off-indefinitely approach Trump’s lawyers fought for. But the defense threw a lot of spaghetti at the wall in hopes something would stick," the guest said. "Nothing did. The special counsel’s office shot down each argument."
Vance continued:
"But we did get a first look at Smith’s reply to Trump’s most ambitious (yet still lacking) defense argument. Equally important, we got a taste of how Smith intends to handle the former president’s typical strategy of provoking extended legal delays tied to specious arguments and procedural moves. Most of the defense arguments involved speculation about difficulties that might materialize down the road. These are the sorts of situations judges are well-equipped to handle when and if they materialize, and they don’t justify what Trump asked the judge to do."
Regarding Trump's attempt to claim the Presidential Records Act governs his case, Vance said the argument fall flat.
"It’s classic Trump — repeat the lie often enough and hope people fall for it," the analyst wrote.
