Legal analyst Elie Honig said Wednesday Special Counsel Jack Smith could resort to the "drastic" measure of requesting Judge Aileen Cannon's removal from Donald Trump’s classified documents case, but one ironic reason might be keeping him back.
Honig spoke with CNN anchor Dana Bash about “one of the big issues” Smith has with the Florida judge overseeing the federal case against the former president: "delay."
"The judge is playing into the defense strategy, which is to delay it so that it reaches November," Bash said. "And then we have the election and then maybe poof, it goes away.”
Bash then asked, “Do you have any sense that, as part of that, [Smith] is setting the stage for a motion to get rid of the judge?”
Honig replied that, judging from a recent filing, Smith, "clearly has had it."
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"I think that oozes out of this briefing. As you said, it’s quite a sensational filing from a prosecutor," Honig said. "I do think there is some frustration that’s obvious with the pace of this as well as the substance of it."
Honig then noted Smith has the option to appeal if Cannon sticks to her guns and says "I am going to instruct the jury on this Presidential Records Act defense."
He then explored the big problems with trying to get Cannon recused.
“That’s quite a drastic step," Honig said. "It is very rarely, not never, but very rarely taken by prosecutors. And there’s no assurance that they win."
“But the sort of irony of all of this is if Jack Smith appeals this, and if Jack Smith asks the appeals court to remove Judge Cannon, that will delay this more than anything that’s happened so far."
Watch the video below or at this link.
Eli Honig on CNN 4/3/24www.youtube.com
