Judge Cannon takes a sledgehammer to Jack Smith’s classified documents case

For months, May 20 has been on the calendar as the start date for the former president’s trial for allegedly retaining national defense information and obstructing efforts to retrieve it – despite it being clear to all for weeks that this was never going to happen.

Then, on Tuesday, the judge overseeing the case made it official – the trial is postponed indefinitely. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the order she issued setting pre-trial deadlines contained a number of unnecessary hearings on issues that have been before her for months. On June 21, she’ll hold a non-evidentiary hearing to discuss a defense motion asking that the indictment be dismissed based on the supposed “unlawful appointment” and funding of the Special Counsel. Days later, there’ll be a “partial evidentiary hearing” on motions the defense has submitted to “compel discovery and define the scope” of the prosecution team. This should have been dismissed out of hand as an unnecessary fishing expedition. Trump wants to define practically the entire intelligence community as well as members of the Biden Administration and even the president’s family members as within the scope of the prosecution team. That’s clearly absurd.

In her order, Judge Cannon said that finalization of a trial date was impossible “before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and CIPA (Classified Information Procedures Act) issues”, but that’s a mess of her own making. She’s slow-walked every step of pre-trial litigation, leaving numerous motions unresolved for no discernable good reason and refused to set timely CIPA deadlines.

The outrage generated by this maneuver was instant. Andrew Weissman told MSNBC’s Deadline: White House “it is just truly a disgrace that she is not doing her job.” Former prosecutor Barbara McQuade told the Washington Post that “it just feels like judicial malpractice to slow-walk this case the way Judge Cannon has.” Right wing media reveled in the news, with Fox News contributor Julie Kelly praising Judge Cannon for her “scorched-earth campaign” against Jack Smith. No judge, in any case, should conduct a “scorched-earth campaign” against either side and it’s telling that surrogates for the so-called ‘party of law and order’ are so keen to see the entire system subverted in this way.

With the federal election interference case also on hold while the Supreme Court considers its ruling on whether former presidents have immunity and D.A. Fani Willis’ Georgia case is upended while an appeals court reviews a request from the ex-president to disqualify her, the current criminal trial in New York is almost certain to be the only case to reach a resolution before the election.

Fireworks exploded in that courtroom this week when Stormy Daniels took the stand to testify against the former president. There was a knock-down, drag-out fight between Daniels and Trump attorney Susan Necheles which clearly left the defense rattled and surveying the broken shards of their arguments. Up next is Michael Cohen, promising even more drama. The case that some called “the runt of the litter” now has to do all the heavy lifting.