The results of most of the polls conducted in the past few months show that former president and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden in the presidential race so far. Despite facing more than 90 charges in four complex legal cases, Donald Trump is headed towards the November general election on the wings of support from his aliases and voters. According to The Hill, Trump has a 1-point lead over Joe Biden based on the data from 652 polls combined.
The legal cases
Recently, three of Trump’s four cases are moving slower than expected. However, the spotlight is now on the Florida case, where Trump is facing charges for mishandling classified documents found in his Mar-a-Lago residence from the time when he was president. The government also accuses him of obstructing its efforts to retrieve the classified documents. Trump faces a total of 40 charges in the case where he and two other co-defendants were indicted in June 2023.
Recent steps
The public finds the Florida case particularly interesting due to some strange rulings made by the presiding judge, Aileen Cannon, whom Trump personally appointed to the bench. This has led to the thinking that the federal judge is helping Trump and his legal team reach their ultimate goal—postponing the trial until after the election. Trump is trying to postpone all of the trials until after the presidential election in hopes that he can help himself if he wins the presidential race.
Ruling against Trump
According to a legal expert, one such recent move by the judge against Trump could mean that she just helped Trump while sending a warning to special counsel Jack Smith. According to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon sent an “extremely ominous” message to special counsel after she denied a motion by the former president to dismiss the case on the grounds that the papers are considered personal under the Presidential Records Act.
Read also: Trump campaign faces huge problem in one key swing state: Pennsylvania
What happened
Last week, on Brian Tyler Cohen’s YouTube channel called The Legal Breakdown, Kirschner, a known critic of Trump, spoke up about a recent decision made by Judge Cannon. He pointed out that in her decision from Thursday, Cannon included something quite troubling that was connected to an earlier submission by Jack Smith.
“Remember, a couple of days ago Jack Smith filed a scorched-earth filing in this case saying, Wait a minute, Judge Cannon, you’re proposing to give two jury instructions and those jury instructions say the Presidential Records Act means that Donald Trump is essentially not guilty of the charges.”
Jack Smith’s response
Kirschner continued: “And Jack Smith responded by saying that’s not an accurate formulation of the law. And if you give those jury instructions, you will be orchestrating an acquittal, you’ll be orchestrating a not guilty verdict, and you’ll be doing it at a time after the trial has already started, after the jury has sworn in, after jeopardy attaches. You’ll be doing it at a time when the prosecutors couldn’t appeal you if you dismiss the case.”
How the case got to this point
Judge Cannon wanted both Smith’s team and Trump’s legal representatives to come up with jury instructions for two hypothetical situations. The first situation required explaining to the jury whether a record kept by a former president after leaving office is considered his personal property. They were also required to clarify whether the government had convincingly shown whether the record is personal or presidential, as defined by the Presidential Records Act.
The second scenario required by Cannon would lay out the arguments in which a president “has sole authority under the PRA to categorize records as personal or presidential” during his presidency.
Cannon ruling
Cannon wrote in her ruling on Thursday: “Separately, to the extent the Special Counsel demands an anticipatory finalization of jury instructions prior to trial, prior to a charge conference, and prior to the presentation of trial defenses and evidence, the Court declines that demand as unprecedented and unjust.” She added that the court’s order to ask for preliminary draft instructions on certain counts should not be interpreted as anything other than “a genuine attempt, in the context of the upcoming trial, to better understand the parties’ competing positions.”
Read also: Huge blow for Ex-Trump lawyer involved in overturning Georgia election
Kirschner’s simple explanation of the ruling
Kirschner then tried to simplify the ruling and further explained what Judge Cannon’s intentions might be in the coming weeks. According to Kirschner, in other words Cannon said: “I will wait until after the jury is sworn. I will wait until after evidence has been presented. I will wait until after Donald Trump has put on his defenses.”
“And then: ‘I still may give that lawless jury instruction about how the Presidential Records Act means the jury must find Donald Trump not guilty. And guess what, Jack? You can’t appeal it at that point. Game over,'” he said.
Kirschner added: “This is the most mind-blowing potential abusive judicial discretion imaginable.”
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