At the same time that Judge Aileen Cannon was pressing lawyers for Donald Trump and Department of Justice prosecutors for a timetable to bring the Mar-a-Lago document case to trial, a former Florida judge was telling CNN that he believes special counsel Jack Smith has a "plan" to move forward no matter how Cannon rules.
Speaking with CNN's Dana Bash, Jeff Swartz noted a DOJ lawyer telling Cannon earlier that they plan to pursue the trial of the former president even it bumps up against the November election.
Asked what his takeaway from the hearing was, Swartz stated, "Well, for the notes that we've heard from before that I've been following, the reports that have been coming out, clearly, they're not going to get a July 8 date."
"And I'm not going to hesitate to say that Trump has to be careful because he might get yet what he's asking for, which would open up trial dates for [Judge Tanya] Chutkan after the Supreme Court comes back," he continued, referring to SCOTUS decision to hear Trump's immunity arguments. Those hearings are scheduled for late April.
"So he needs to get something in late August, early September to kind of interfere with that set, that trial being set then."
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"However, I think that Jack has a backup plan for that, and I think that he'll get what he wants from Chutkan, which is probably sometime in late July, early August," he elaborated. "I anticipate the Supreme Court will wait until the very end of the term to issue their opinion and I think that he has a plan to avoid whatever Judge Cannon does."
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