Former President Donald Trump’s legal woes are piling up — but he just scored a much-needed win in his classified documents case in Florida.
Judge Aileen Cannon demanded the Department of Justice answer about the legality of special counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury activity in Washington, DC, as it relates to the Florida case.
CNN reported —
In an order Monday, Cannon said [co-defendant Walt] Nauta’s lawyers “shall address the legal propriety of using an out-of-district grand jury proceeding to continue to investigate and/or to seek post-indictment hearings on matters pertinent to the instant indicted matter in this district” by August 17. The special counsel must reply by August 22
The special counsel previously told Cannon that “the grand jury in this district [in Florida] and a grand jury in the District of Columbia continued to investigate further obstructive activity,” which resulted in the latest group of criminal charges before her against Trump, Nauta and a third defendant, Mar-a-Lago employee Carlos De Oliveira
Judge Aileen Cannon delivered a lot of blows to the Special Counsel’s office this AM.
I think she’s starting to see through the political bullshit as well.
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) August 7, 2023
It was a much needed court win as the 45th president’s legal issues mount. The criminal case in Florida against Trump is set for May 20, 2024. Prosecutors are charging him with illegally retaining hundreds of classified documents.
It will follow close on the heels of a separate New York trial for Trump on charges of falsifying business records in connection with an alleged hush money payment to a porn actor. It also means the trial would not start until deep into the presidential nominating calendar and probably well after the Republican nominee is clear — though before that person is officially nominated at the Republican National Convention.
Trump could yet face additional trials in the coming year. He was indicted in Washington, D.C. regarding his efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Prosecutors in Georgia, meanwhile, are set to also indict Trump in the next few weeks in an investigation into attempts by Trump and his allies to subvert the vote in that state.
The trial before Cannon would take place in a federal courthouse in Fort Pierce.
It arises from a 38-count indictment last month, filed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, that accused Trump of willfully hoarding classified document at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach and conspiring to hide them from investigators.
Trump and Nauta have both pleaded not guilty.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article