That's not me saying it, it's Donald Trump saying it. Based on a discovery request filed Tuesday night, this is apparently going to be his defense in the classified documents case:
The court papers, filed in Federal District Court in Fort Pierce, Fla., gave the clearest picture yet of the scorched earth legal strategy that Mr. Trump is apparently planning to use in fighting the classified documents indictment handed up over the summer.
....Mr. Trump’s filing appeared intended to paint Mr. Trump as the victim of the spy agencies that once served him and of purported collusion between the Biden administration and prosecutors who have filed some of the four criminal cases he now faces.
....In the filing on Tuesday night, Mr. Blanche and Mr. Kise asked Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who is overseeing the classified documents case, to force Mr. Smith to give them any “documents and communications reflecting bias and/or political animus toward President Trump” by members of his own prosecution team.
Poor Donald, always a victim. What he's saying here is that he plans to turn the trial into a political circus, claiming that the charges were only brought in the first place because everyone has it out for him. If not for that, he would have gotten away with everything.
This isn't surprising. The evidence against Trump in the documents case is so overwhelming that he really has no choice except to change the subject. So sure, he took the documents. And then refused to give them back. And then defied a subpoena to give them back. And then colluded with his staff to hide them when the FBI searched his house. But it was only because.......I don't know, because he was fighting a righteous battle against corrupt apparatchiks on behalf of the American people?
Sure, that's the ticket.
Yes! I for one hate t-Rump and wish him jailed today. He is more than a threat to democracy and our lives. I hate him. I didn't capitalise but you know what I'm saying.
Everybody hates me
Nobody likes me
Guess I’ll eat some wor-or-or-ums
Long slimy slimy ones
Short fat juicy ones
Itsy bitsy fuzzy Suzy worms
Bite their heads off
Suck the juice out
Throw the skins away
I don't know how birds
can live on worms
three times a day!
Skimming the motion to compel, my take is that this reads like a pro se wrote it. Very, very light on case law (and what is cited is basic stuff about the general duty to disclose and respond to discovery requests), few citations to facts, unsupported and rather wild assertions, and a tendentious screediness that makes it hard to figure out what exactly is the legal principle from which Defendant Trump is trying to argue.
No real typos jumped out at me, though, so I suppose Todd Blanche and Emil Bove of Blanchelaw deserve some credit for that. I'd be embarrased to sign *my* name to such a motion, though.
A classic bit of pure table-pounding from Messrs. Blanche and Kise. It's all they've got. The problem here, of course, is that Cannon is a shameless hack who will no doubt try as hard as possible to use this to make Smith and his lawyers waste a bunch of time complying, thereby delaying things even further. Which is the whole point.
Of course the defense is that everybody hates Trump, but the only way he could lose a democratic election is if he was cheated.
with cannon as the presiding judge, maybe that is the ticket.
Trump has the judge totally in his pocket, so it makes sense to just file what are basically Fox News talking points. He doesn't need to actually do anything to gain an acquittal so he's just doing whatever he wants and hopes it will also screw with and delay the other trials that are pending.
When a judge is obviously biased, what is supposed to be the remedy for that?
Can a higher court decide that the judge is too biased and move the case to another judge?
"Can a higher court decide that the judge is too biased and move the case to another judge?"
No. But the higher court could reverse procedural orders from the district court on interlocutory appeals.
The problem, of course, is time. Trump's strategy is to (a) run out the clock between now and November and (b) win the presidency. If he gets (a) and (b), the court case doesn't matter. And while decisions against him undermine his ability to get (b), running out the clock a la (a) decreases the likelihood of said decisions racking up before November.
Jack Smith does have an option to file a motion for Cannon to recuse. Some observers think he is waiting for her to vacate the May trial date before doing so. But she is holding back on doing that because as soon as she does, Fani Willis can go ahead with the Georgia trial. As long as Cannon doesn't officially delay the MAL trial, Willis can't jump into the gap.
Orange Jesus plans to pardon himself if he wins, and his good friend Nikki says she will pardon him if convicted.
Frankly, I think Uncle Joe should pardon his schmuck of a son Hunter if he loses. Hunter probably doesn't deserve a pardon, but the MAGA crowd thinks its absolutely fine to pardon all the MAGA shit heads that were convicted by the "deep state", including the 1/6 traitors serving time for attacking the police, so Biden might as well take care of his Son.
I suspect The Defendant continues to hide various classified documents ... or has exchanged them for (ahem) "other benefits." If this trial were to proceed, who knows what cans of worms might emerge?
Which is why Loose Cannon isn't allowing it.
"I have been treated very unfairly."
We hear that said by Trump all the time.
Sure, maybe his dad was an asshole who was mean to him, but most people would have gotten over it long before arriving at his age. But apparently, he's still living it.
I just don't want to have to hear the adult baby whining for four more years.
There is something galling about a man who owns* his own jet complaining about how the world has treated him.
________
*Whatever the exact ownership/lease/shell company game in question may be. It's still more airplane than any of the rest of us will ever have.
Look, he was going to make this argument during opening and closing of every trial, regardless. But, he hasn't done this in any other venue. Don't you want to know why?
It's an improper fishing expedition without merit or basis, to give Cannon another reason to drag the start of the trial. As it is, even though he was charged here first, it's currently slated to be the last trial to move forward.
If she allows it to go forward, perhaps it'll be the final proof Smith needs to have the case transferred away from her court. Likely, she'll make a mixed ruling thinking it won't be enough to prove that she's biased, even as she's built a trail of questionable rulings.
This is his "legal" argument, trying to set up an appeal issue. But it's a terrible political argument. It prompts the question "Why do so many people hate him?"
If I was a Democratic political strategist, I would be all over this:
Why does Donald Trump claim so many people hate him? Maybe because they do. But why? Let us count the ways:
- He thinks he's better than everyone.
- He doesn't know when to shut up.
- He can't be trusted.
- He doesn't know what he's talking about, but doesn't care.
- He's a fraud.
- He even smells bad.