The Democrats’ hopes have just been shattered after the judge in President Donald Trump’s classified documents case officially removed the trial from the calendar.
The move shuts down Special Counsel Jack Smith’s anti-Trump case, ensuring that it will never go to trial before the 2024 election, as the Democrats had hoped.
As Slay News recently reported, Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely postponed the trial after it had emerged that the prosecution had been tampering with evidence.
The trial was scheduled for May 20, and while Democrats may have been hoping the case could get back on track before November, those hopes have now been crushed after it has officially been removed from the calendar.
The numerous unresolved pre-trial issues mean the case will now likely never make it to court, even if Trump doesn’t win in November.
It’s a victory for Trump and his strategy of delay.
However, not many could have predicted that the case would crash and burn so early on.
Prosecutor Jack Smith has furiously pushed for a pre-election trial date, without saying so directly.
Judge Cannon’s refusal to adhere to Smith’s political timeline has infuriated Democrats.
Democrats accuse the judge, without evidence, of tipping the scales in Trump’s favor.
In a brief ruling, Judge Cannon vacated a May 20 trial date and said that unresolved issues in the case.
She noted that the issues raise “novel and difficult questions,” making rescheduling it impractical.
The ruling appears to dash Smith’s hopes for a trial in July, as it now won’t likely happen at all.
In short, Cannon said that rushing the case would undermine Trump’s right to due process and the “public’s interest in the fair and efficient administration of justice.”
The “finalization of a trial date at this juncture … would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court,” she wrote.
Smith has admitted that the documents are no longer in their original order
The admission raises concerns that exculpatory evidence may have been destroyed.
Despite the complexity of the case – to say nothing of Smith’s admitted evidence tampering – Democrats are furious over Cannon’s ruling.
They claim the decision is politically motivated.
“It is hard for me not to reach the conclusion that this [judge] is deliberately slow-walking the case to put it into a position where, should [Trump] be elected, he can order that the investigation and prosecution be terminated,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said.
Three out of Trump’s four criminal trials now appear to be stalled indefinitely.
The sole exception is Trump’s “hush money” trial in New York, which is currently ongoing, albeit falling apart.
Smith’s other Trump prosecution, which deals with January 6, is stalled pending a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
Trump’s Georgia election case, already hanging by a thread thanks to prosecutor Fani Willis’ indiscretions, is also in limbo.
An appeals court agreed to review whether Willis should be disqualified from the case.
Willis admitted to an affair with a prosecutor she hired, who has since resigned.
A lower court allowed Willis to stay on the case, despite an “appearance of impropriety.”
READ MORE – Jonathan Turley: Alvin Bragg’s Anti-Trump ‘Hush Money’ Case Is ‘Falling Apart’
