Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack isn’t falling for Donald Trump’s “delay my trial because I’m running for president” schtick.
Special Counsel Jack Smith is trying to put his foot down on attempts by the legal team of former president Donald Trump to have the trial dates for the latter’s cases moved to 2026, well after the presidential elections next year.
“In service of a proposed trial date in 2026 that would deny the public its right to a speedy trial, the defendant cites inapposite statistics and cases, overstates the amount of new and non-duplicative discovery, and exaggerates the challenge of reviewing it effectively,” Smith wrote to the court in response to the Trump team’s request on scheduling.
The special counsel also believes that a number of conflicts the defense cites in the request are “easily addressed” and do not require an inordinate delay in setting trial dates. Smith also addressed another argument made by the defense that given the volume of the documents related to the cases – “approximately three million pages” of discovery material according to the court filing – saying that a page-by-page review of the documents was not necessary, explaining that, “In cases such as this one, the burden of reviewing discovery cannot be measured by page count alone.”
Federal prosecutors also assert that the case is not “about classified information and the Government does not anticipate introducing classified material in its case-in-chief.”
Donald Trump In Trouble?
In a recent interview on Fox News, former attorney general Bill Barr was asked to offer his opinion on the indictments Trump is facing.
“If there’s a chance to get it (Trump’s cases) resolved before the election, it should be, because the American people deserve to know. These are potential crimes that involve moral turpitude,” Barr stated. He also said that he sees the second indictment in particular as a “very simple case” and if the presiding judge was “anywhere competent,” the case could be concluded – and a verdict handed down – before the summer of next year.
The former attorney general also believes that while the courts may accommodate scheduling requests for the trial, it would only be for a couple of days, and not as far in the future as the Trump legal team is requesting. Even if his former boss were to win the Republican primary, it still would not sufficiently constitute any radical changes to the how the indictment trials would be scheduled, Barr said.
“I don’t think that (the election) should govern the schedule for pursuing these cases,” said the former attorney general. Barr added, “You don’t get immunity for two years in a run up to an election just by saying, ‘Hey, I’m a candidate.’”
The former Trump ally also criticized two of the indictments Trump is facing – the one in New York involving the payoffs to an adult actress he branded a “political hit job”, while the most recent one in Georgia he deemed too sweeping and too broad. The federal cases being handled by Smith though, Barr called “legitimate.”
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