In the criminal case brought against former President Donald Trump over his handling of government documents from his time in office, Special Counsel Jack Smith — the federal prosecutor leading the charge — has scored a partial win from presiding Judge Aileen Cannon.
Cannon was originally nominated for the federal judiciary by Trump himself when the latter was still president, and she has gained a reputation while helping handle proceedings that implicate Trump for decisions that favor his side. Thus, the latest move is a break with that trend.
The developments concern the preparation of written questionnaires for potential jurors, a process that Smith and his team had been wanting to kick into gear ahead of an early March scheduling conference slated in the case. While Cannon didn’t approve the early February deadline that Smith pushed for initial proposals for the questionnaires, she did approve — against Trump’s wishes — a jump-start to that process, imposing a deadline for initial submissions of February 28.
As highlighted by the outlet The Messenger, Trump’s team in the case had claimed “this type of litigation detracts from the defendants’ efforts to review voluminous discovery and prepare motions that are crucial to the defense.” The specific steps that must be finalized by that deadline of the end of February are initial consultations between prosecutors and the defense on potential written questions for possible jurors, with explanations of where their perspectives meet and diverge presented to the judge. Cannon will evidently be responsible for, at this stage, additional approvals of any questions actually presented to candidates for Trump’s documents jury. Cannon issued this decision Friday.
Elsewhere, arguments will continue at the federal appeals court in D.C. over whether Trump really has wide-ranging legal protections by virtue of his time in office as he claims. The former president’s team is attempting to use these contentions to put a stop to his January 6-related case from Smith.
