Trump ‘plainly guilty’ in case his handpicked judge derailed: ex-prosecutor

A former federal prosecutor says President Donald Trump would likely have been convicted if not for one person he picked himself.

Harry Litman, host of "Talking Feds," said in a Thursday episode that the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case was "totally righteous, totally strong" and, "but for Cannon and the happenstance of the election," would have led to a conviction. He was referring to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed during his first term.

"The Mar-a-Lago purloining of documents and obstructing the department was a layup on the evidence," Litman said. "So he's so plainly guilty."

Litman's comments came as the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted Trump's request to postpone oral argument, previously set for November 2, in the fight over Volume II of special counsel Jack Smith's report. Cannon has kept that volume, which covers the documents case, under wraps for more than a year, and First Amendment groups, including the Knight First Amendment Institute, have asked the appeals court to force its release.

Trump's lawyers first pointed to scheduling conflicts and to concerns involving his former co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, whose cases have been dismissed. They later cited a motion from FBI agents seeking guidance from Cannon after being called before a grand jury, a motion Litman noted Cannon had already struck from the record.

Litman, who said he has argued "a lot of appeals, including for the government," said reasons like those normally "wouldn't cut it, but this case is not normal."

He accused Cannon of "bending over backwards, doing backward cartwheels in order to serve the interests of Donald Trump," and said the chief judge of her district had told her not to take the case in the first place.

The appeals court's order said argument would be set at a time convenient to the panel and the attorneys. "That is music to his ears," Litman said. "That's just an indefinite delay, among other things, past when the midterms play out."

Litman argued the report would undercut Trump's long-running attacks on Smith's prosecutions. "I think that report, when it comes out, is going to be very damning and really rebut very forcefully the tired and empty charges of weaponization," he said.

"But it ain't going to be super soon," he added.