On Friday, Federal District Court Judge Aileen Cannon scheduled former President Donald Trump’s trial for May 24 of next year… and one Fox News star had something to say.
“Judge Cannon, in Florida, you let the country down. This trial should have been moved to after the election. You just gave your imprimatur and the imprimatur of the federal judiciary to the interference in this election,” Mark Levin said Sunday on Life, Liberty, and Levin.
Trump and his legal team had asked the federal courts to schedule his trial after the 2024 election, and the prosecution wanted a December trial. Cannon split the difference and scheduled it for May.
Levin accused Cannon — a Trump-appointed judge — of influencing 2024’s presdential election.
“Judge Cannon just ruled that the trial is going to begin in the documents case not in December, as Mr. Smith wanted, but in May,” Levin said.
“May, smack in the middle of the election! The whole purpose of what’s going on here is to interfere with the election, to protect Biden from scrutiny, to protect Biden from scrutiny… to get him re-elected. That’s what the Democrat party wants. That’s why they trash [Biden’s Democrat rival] Robert Kennedy, Jr.”
If the date holds, then 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.
“At the same time, on a second path to destroy who they believe would be the nominee — or at least potentially — Donald Trump,” Levin shouted in an impassioned rant. “Of the hundreds of charges, all we need is one. One to stick, in front of some Democrat jury!”
Levin also slammed Special Counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor. He even accused Smith’s team of extortion, and he urged Cannon to investigate this matter.
“Furthermore, you haven’t even looked into a matter which you have the right to look into without any motion from defense counsel. Involving an extortion that took place,” Levin said, addressing Cannon. “This is diabolical. He’s an extremely dishonest individual.”
Take a look —
Cannon has defended her scheduling decision.
In pushing back the trial from the Dec. 11 start date that the Justice Department had asked for, Cannon wrote that “the Government’s proposed schedule is atypically accelerated and inconsistent with ensuring a fair trial.” She agreed with defense lawyers that the amount of evidence that would need to be sifted through before the trial, including classified information, was “voluminous and likely to increase in the normal course as trial approaches.”
“The Court finds that the interests of justice served by this continuance outweigh the best interest of the public and Defendants in a speedy trial,” Cannon wrote.
In a statement referring to the Department of Justice, the Trump campaign called Cannon’s order “a major setback to the DOJ’s crusade to deny President Trump a fair legal process. The extensive schedule allows President Trump and his legal team to continue fighting this empty hoax.”
Trump’s new lawyer in that investigation, John Lauro, told Fox News on Friday that prosecutors appeared to be accusing Trump of “some kind of effort to obstruct” the Jan. 6, 2021, counting of state electoral votes and “whether or not President Trump intimidated anyone or ballot stuffed.” He said Trump would not be appearing before a grand jury because “he did absolutely nothing wrong.”
The trial before Cannon would take place in a federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.
It arises from a 38-count indictment last month, filed by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, that accused Trump of willfully hoarding classified documents, including top secret records, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach and conspiring with his valet, Walt Nauta, to hide them from investigators who demanded them back.
Trump and Nauta have both pleaded not guilty.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.