Judge Aileen Cannon has officially been backed into a corner

Donald Trump believes that if he can delay the criminal charges pending against him, he can win the presidency, waive his magic wand, and “poof,” make them all go away. Good luck with that. First, he has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the presidency. Second, Jack Smith is hot and heavy on his tail. Trump has the most ridiculous defenses against these charges. He claimed that he has immunity, but since that’s not working, he’s relying on “they’re prosecuting me for political reasons.” This claim is why Trump’s attorneys are asking for additional documents than what has already been turned over, which, according to Newsweek, was 1.3 million documents. According to Trump’s team, Trump is the victim of “selective prosecution,” and they claim the documents they seek will prove it. Not so fast, said Jack Smith.

In his recent filing, Smith pointed out that as a prosecutor, Aileen Cannon had a very similar situation. One of the men who was convicted based his appeal on “selective prosecution” because the stings in which he was caught targeted Blacks and Hispanics. The court of appeals ruled that the defendant needed to provide evidence of his claim prior to receiving discovery he alleged would back up his claim. Trump’s claim is very similar. He has provided no evidence whatsoever that he is being targeted politically. He has, from day one, claimed that President Biden is behind his prosecutions, which is ridiculous on its face. The government’s evidence that Trump willingly took and tried to retain classified documents is overwhelming, and just because Trump thinks something is true doesn’t make it so.

Smith’s filing pointed out that the allegation of selective prosecution is unfounded. Just as the court of appeals ruled in the case Cannon prosecuted, without some type of proof of this claim, they are not entitled to anything other than what they have already been given. Besides, if Trump’s allegation was true, they would have found it in the millions of pages already in their possession. Indeed, such evidence should have stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. Smith used the case Cannon prosecuted and another as well-settled law on the issue. Cannon doesn’t exactly follow the law when it comes to her benefactor, and if she doesn’t here, she gives Smith grounds for recusal long past the time that he should have made such an argument. Catherine Ross, a professor at George Washington University Law School, called Smith’s move “brilliant.” Ross went on to tell the Daily Beast: “She worked on almost no cases. She had little courtroom experience. To find a case that she worked on and that resulted in a published opinion is in itself improbable.”

The precedence in Trump’s request has been set, with one of them being set by Cannon’s own prosecution. She had best tread lightly in this instance. She has already been overturned by the Eleventh Circuit once. They won’t hesitate to do it again. If she continues along this current vein of openly trying to protect Donald Trump, she may well find herself looking for another job.