Jack Smith strikes back
Late last week Donald Trump announced that as far as he’s concerned, Judge Tanya Chutkan is no longer presiding over his criminal trial while he files an appeal over one of her rulings, and that the trial must be put on hold. To be clear, this isn’t a legal move. It isn’t anything. It’s like when Michael Scott yelled “I declare bankruptcy” on The Office and thought that doing so meant he’d actually declared bankruptcy.
Now Jack Smith is firing back. Last night he made a filing that poked numerous basic legal holes in Trump’s interpretation of how trials work. Suffice it to say that Smith will automatically win this ruling in Chutkan’s court. And there’s roughly zero percent chance that the U.S. Court of Appeals will put the trial on hold while it rules on Trump’s appeal. After all, this is the same U.S. Court of Appeals that just a few days ago matter of factly stated in a separate ruling that Trump’s trial will take place long before the 2024 election.
So no, this isn’t going to help Donald Trump any. This isn’t a legal maneuver. It isn’t a delay tactic. It isn’t a strategy of any kind. It’s simply a matter of a desperate and deflated Trump screaming “Do something” at his attorneys, them saying they can make this kind of filing but it won’t help any, and him telling them to do it anyway. Simply put, Trump has already lost.
