Jack Smith

A recent and surprising ruling from Florida federal court Judge Aileen Cannon suggests she's seriously considering dismissing charges against convicted felon Donald Trump, the former president's onetime lawyer argued Thursday.

Cannon's uncommon decision — allowing outside experts to speak in Trump's classified documents case at a hearing later this month — shows she's taking seriously claims that special counsel Jack Smith does not have the constitutional right to prosecute, Jim Trusty argued during a CNN appearance.

With another day of Supreme Court decisions that ended with inaction on the two major cases involving former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in D.C., judicial analyst Jeffrey Toobin took to X to slam the justices' delay — and warn that they are rapidly closing the window of opportunity to let special counsel Jack Smith try his case before the election in November.

"The Supreme Court's ongoing delay in deciding the immunity case is a gift to Trump, regardless of the ultimate result," wrote Toobin. "The Justices are taking so long that it may well be impossible to try the case before November, even if they rule that the case can proceed."

In 2017 and 2018, former federal prosecutor Ty Cobb was part of the Trump Administration's legal team. But these days, he is vehemently critical of Donald Trump and isn't shy about saying that the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee is unfit to return to the White House.

Cobb has had a lot to say about Trump's legal problems, and he believes that Judge Aileen Cannon has handled the Mar-a-Lago documents case very badly.

The federal appeals court overseeing U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon would have "no choice" but to remove her from the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case if she ruled with Donald Trump's assertion that special counsel Jack Smith was illegally appointed, said former Miami-Dade County court judge Jeff Swartz on CNN.

Swartz in particular slammed Cannon's decision Wednesday to hold a multi-day hearing on Trump's motion to throw out the case — and allow testimony from unrelated third-party right-wing lawyers at that hearing — as well as drag out motions from Smith to impose a gag order on Trump.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is under pressure from Trump allies to clamp down on special counsel Jack Smith's criminal prosecutions of former President Donald Trump, and The New Republic's Greg Sargent argues that his latest reported moves reek of "deep MAGA desperation."

In particular, Sargent reports that Johnson soon may announce proposals that "would restrict federal funding from going to any special counsel to 'bring a criminal prosecution of a former or current president," while "two others would restrict federal funding to other federal and state law enforcement officials pursuing such a prosecution."

The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson, a Never Trump conservative and former GOP strategist, predicted, during a 2022 interview with The Guardian, that his former party would ultimately "bend the knee" to Donald Trump in the 2024 election. And just as Wilson predicted, one prominent Republican after another endorsed Trump once he became this year's presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

That support of Trump has only intensified since a Manhattan jury convicted him on 34 criminal counts in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money/falsified business records trial.

Donald Trump frequently muses about prosecuting his enemies at rallies, during interviews and in social media posts, and his former chief strategist Steve Bannon revealed his allies are scheming to carry out those threats.

If the recently convicted ex-president wins re-election, his top supporters will urge him to target Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg and his other perceived political enemies for prosecution, and Bannon told Axios that Trump's allies are cooking up legal justification for those investigations.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon this week delivered yet another eyebrow-raising ruling when she allowed lawyers allied with former President Donald Trump to present oral arguments later this month in which they'll argue that the entire Mar-a-Lago classified documents case should be thrown out.

CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams didn't mince words on Wednesday when asked about Cannon allowing these oral arguments, which appear likely to further delay the trial.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon will allow a number of outside parties with ties to a right-wing organization to give arguments during a hearing later this month on whether to throw out former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

According to Lawfare's Anna Bower, Cannon is allowing a trio of attorneys who filed amici — Josh Blackman, Gene Schaerr, and Matthew Seligman — to participate in oral arguments at "the hearing on Defendant Trump's Motion to Dismiss the Indictment Based on the Unlawful Appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith." The hearing will take place on June 21.

Former President Donald Trump is demanding that Judge Juan Merchan terminate the gag order in his criminal hush money trials on the heels of his historic conviction, according to a new report.

CNN's Kara Scannell reports that Trump's attorneys argued in a letter delivered Monday, and made public Tuesday, that there was no longer any need to protect the jury from prejudice.