Special counsel Jack Smith suffered two setbacks this week in his cases against Donald Trump.
A judge in Trump’s hush money trial ordered him to attend every day, potentially delaying other cases for two months.
“Jack Smith hardest hit,” reporter Julie Kelly wrote on X. “Judge Cannon in FLA already made clear she will not hold any hearings that Trump is unable to attend due to other court obligations. This will push ongoing pretrial proceedings back two months.”
Jack Smith hardest hit. Judge Cannon in FLA already made clear she will not hold any hearings that Trump is unable to attend due to other court obligations. This will push ongoing pretrial proceedings back two months. https://t.co/FWbBSMSFiE
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) April 16, 2024
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of Smith’s key obstruction charges during oral arguments in the January 6th case.
The daily attendance requirement effectively freezes Smith’s classified documents case in Florida until the New York trial concludes.
“They will try to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedoms,” Trump said. “They will try to silence me because I will never let them silence you. They want you silent, and I’m the only one who can save this nation because you know they’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you.”
Smith may also face delays prosecuting Trump in Georgia.
To get around a potential Supreme Court ruling blocking his obstruction theory, Smith claimed the charges could still stand based on evidence impairment.
“Petitioner asserts … that the grant of review in Fischer v. United States … suggests that the Section 1512(c)(2) charges here impermissibly stretch the statute. But whether the Court interprets Section 1512(c)(2) consistently with a natural reading of its text or adopts the evidence-impairment gloss urged by the petitioner in Fischer, the Section 1512 charges in this case are valid,” Smith wrote, adding that “the use of falsehoods or creation of ‘false’ documents satisfies an evidence-impairment interpretation.”
However, Trump’s legal issues have become tangled with conflicting court obligations from multiple ongoing cases across different jurisdictions.
The daily attendance order especially hampers Smith’s ability to move forward and increases chances of delays in prosecuting Trump.
