With Donald Trump’s New York trial heading to summations next week, a hearing in his classified documents prosecution is a reminder that the hush money case may be his only criminal one that gets tried before the election — and possibly ever. When it comes to the classified documents case, the delay is due in large part to how U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has handled it.
In fact, the federal case in Florida had been set to start trial this week, before Cannon postponed it indefinitely. Like Trump’s other federal case over his alleged 2020 election interference, it could have been tried by now, or could have been on its way to being tried, instead of mired in uncertainty. If Trump wins the presidential election in November, he could order his federal cases dismissed or try to pardon himself. Any pending action in his two state cases could be delayed — with the Georgia one’s fate already unclear on pretrial appeal — even if as president he can’t pardon himself for them.
Wednesday’s hearing is to deal with defense dismissal motions, including Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta’s vindictive prosecution claim. However Cannon resolves these contested motions, that she’s potentially entertaining them risks further needless delay. Given the Trump-appointed judge’s leisurely handling of the case so far, it won’t be surprising if she takes a while to resolve those issues.
But what’s being discussed Wednesday represents just a small fraction of the issues pending in the case against the former president and presumptive GOP nominee on allegations he hoarded sensitive government documents and obstructed efforts to retrieve them. (Trump and his two co-defendants have pleaded not guilty.)
Indeed, in a recent New York Times op-ed, a former CIA lawyer explained how Cannon “has made almost no progress over the past 11 months” since Trump was charged. That lawyer, Brian Greer, noted how Cannon still hasn’t addressed the biggest issues, including how classified evidence can be used at trial, and that she won’t even start doing so until at least August. “The world is watching, and Judge Cannon is proving that she is not fit for this moment,” the lawyer concluded.
It’s difficult to disagree. Every motion is important, including the ones Cannon is considering Wednesday, especially because ruling for the defense would throw the case into even further chaos. But that aside, given Cannon’s slow-walking combined with the unknown outcome of the 2024 election, it remains to be seen whether this case will still be a case next year. (Because this question naturally arises, I’ve explained that, despite Cannon’s actions and inaction, I don’t think that special counsel Jack Smith would succeed in pushing to remove the judge, which may be why he hasn’t tried.) Even if Trump loses another election, Cannon will still have the power to cause all sorts of mischief up through and during any trial. Her moves to date all but guarantee that such a trial won’t happen before the four-times indicted defendant possibly becomes president again. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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