Jon Sale was among the assistant U.S. Attorneys who worked on the Watergate case, but more recently, he turned down working on Donald Trump's documents case in Florida.
Speaking to Katy Tur on Thursday, Sale said that Trump's latest court filing took guts, making both political arguments and legal ones he found somewhat legitimate.
Trump complains that the trial must be delayed because of his campaign, but Sale explained that if it's an excuse that can be used now, it's an excuse that can be used for the rest of the year and all through 2024.
"The legal arguments are not that crazy," he claimed. "If you do the math, they are really saying until after the election, which seems like forever, but it's 17 months as I count it. Right now, Judge Cannon is trying a case. It's a complicated Medicare fraud case that was indicted 18 months ago. So we're not the rocket docket like Virginia. Every judge is different. But I think Judge Cannon, the whole world is watching, and I think she's going to hold both parties' feet to the fire."
That hasn't been the case for Cannon in the past. In the early days of the case, Cannon stepped in to demand a special master be appointed to examine all of the evidence seized by the FBI search warrant of Mar-a-Lago. It set such a terrible precedent that the conservative 11th Circuit Court of Appeals not only overruled her decision, but they issued a blistering ruling.
Sale said that the CIPA (Classified Information Procedures Act) issue alone may add a wrinkle in the speed of the case.
"The court has to appoint a court security officer who will help with sorting out the classified documents, seeing where they'll be stored, the clearances and determine how long that review will take," he explained. "Some of the legal arguments, for example, they ask for — they need a lot of time because there are hundreds of thousands of documents to review. Well, that doesn't take 17 months. I mean, a lot of the cases I'm involved with, we have that volume of documents. It's not like the old days, there are vendors, search terms. Those are reviewed every day. It's the classified documents that are the problem. And I think what Judge Cannon needs to do is determine what motions are going to be made. Which ones require evidence hearings. I think she will probably set another status conference and determine what's a realistic trial date."
See the full interview with Sale below or in the link.
Lawyer that turned down Trump says Cannon might delay trial if her other cases are any indicationwww.youtube.com
