Donald Trump looks like he’s succeeding in running out the clock.
The former president’s common strategy across his four criminal trials is to use the constitutional protections granted by a legal system he claims is corrupt to push the moment he will stand before a jury until after the election in November.
Trump has long been an expert in tying the courts in knots by exhausting every single avenue of appeal – often using fanciful legal strategies that nevertheless take time to litigate – to postpone accountability.
The technique will be on display on Thursday when Trump’s lawyers challenge the legality of special counsel Jack Smith’s case against the presumptive Republican nominee over his hoarding of classified documents at his Florida resort, with Trump expected to be in attendance.
Judge Aileen Cannon will hear Trump’ motions seeking the dismissal of the case, partly based on his argument that he was entitled to take classified documents to his residence. He is also claiming that he is the victim of selective prosecution and was treated differently than other senior officials who had classified material – like President Joe Biden – despite clear differences in their cases. And, as in other courtroom dramas, he’s making a sweeping claim of presidential immunity in keeping with his apparent belief that the nation’s highest office put him above the law.
Cannon is also currently weighing a postponement of the late May start to the trial that would play into Trump’s attempts to prevent it from beginning before November.
Not for the first time, a real sense of frustration seeped into Smith’s legal filings in the case last week. He asked Cannon to throw out what he called the former president’s “frivolous” arguments, saying, the “immunity claim here…
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