The left's lawfare against former President Donald Trump continues to hit roadblocks at every turn, and Jack Smith's team just suffered yet another setback with potentially significant implications.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Saturday granted a temporary delay in the classified documents case brought by Smith against Trump so that she could assess the matter in the context of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision on presidential immunity, as the Washington Examiner reports.
As the New York Post reported, it was on Friday that Trump's legal team made its request for a halt in the classified documents proceedings in light of the high court's recent decision.
According to Trump's attorneys, the Supreme Court's ruling “guts” prosecutorial claims that their client enjoyed no immunity regarding claims that he mishandled sensitive national security documents.
Trump lawyers Todd Blanche, Emil Bove, and Christopher Kise contended that Smith is now unable to make use of evidence stemming from “official acts,” which they argue was a key tactic of the prosecution in the case at issue.
Adding further meat to their request, the lawyers for Trump referenced a concurrence penned by Justice Clarence Thomas suggesting that Smith's appointment to his current role by Attorney General Merrick Garland may well be unconstitutional and therefore, invalid.
Specifically, the former president's legal team requested that Cannon issue a partial stay in the case and to take steps to resolve “threshold questions” about the SCOTUS ruling and how it impacts the documents matter.
They added that a briefing schedule related to the immunity ruling would need to stretch into September, making it increasingly unlikely that a trial would occur any time prior to the November election.
Unsurprisingly, Smith's team reacted by opposing the request for a stay and by asking for an opportunity to submit a formal response.
As the Washington Examiner later reported, it was on Saturday that Cannon went ahead and granted the request for a delay in the matter, pending review of the Supreme Court's decision and its potential implications for the case.
Cannon implemented a two-week halt on a trio of upcoming deadlines facing the parties, a decision that was surely welcomed by the president and his team.
The judge declared a July 18 deadline for Smith to respond to Trump's motion for a stay and a July 21 deadline for all other replies.
Cannon's move was as partial win for Trump, in that he wanted a full pause on the case with the exception of the ongoing dispute over a gag order in the case, but only received a halt on certain aspects of the proceedings.
Even so, any delays can rightly be viewed as detrimental to what has long seemed to be Smith's overarching goal, namely, to secure convictions on as many counts against Trump as possible ahead of Nov. 5.
