(Photo by Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images)
Tomorrow is the deadline for Trump to file pretrial motions in the Florida documents case, and his lawyers are SO READY.
Well, READY-ish.
On February 6, they filed a motion asking Judge Aileen Cannon to modify the scheduling order to allow them more time to chew clock as they try to kick loose White House communications, prosecutorial deliberations, and half the classified intelligence in the government archive.
“The defendants’ review of the recently produced discovery and the resolution of the pending motions to compel—as well as the pending CIPA § 4 motion—will impact our analysis of whether and how to pursue some defense motions,” they intoned ominously. “Accordingly, the defendants respectfully request that the Court modify the scheduling order to permit the filing of suppression motions and motions relating to evidence sought in the pending motions to compel within one month of the Court’s resolution of the pending motions.”
Perhaps this was a tacit nod to the reality that this case is clearly not going to trial in May as scheduled, even as Judge Cannon squats on the docket to ensure that none of the other Trump cases can go forward in the early summer. If so, the court wasn’t playing along.
On the 15th, the judge denied the motion to adjourn, with the caveat that she would entertain supplementary requests later “as appropriate, but only upon a particularized and timely showing that events post-dating February 22, 2024, clearly justify additional pre-trial briefing.”
Last night, the defendants were back with another request. What if instead of filing a whole bunch of weird motions, they just docketed one giant flaming pile of crazy?
On February 22, 2024, President Trump intends to file at least 10 pretrial motions concerning, for example, the appointment of Jack Smith, presidential immunity, the Presidential Records Act, selective and vindictive prosecution, the unconstitutional vagueness of 18 U.S.C. § 793(e), due process violations, prosecutorial misconduct, impermissible pre-indictment delay, the illegal raid at Mar-a-Lago, and improper violations of President Trump’s attorney-client privilege. Similar to the motions to compel, for the sake of efficiency and in order to avoid requiring separate filings for each motion, President Trump respectfully requests permission to file a single consolidated brief in support of his pretrial motions not to exceed the 200 pages in aggregate that are contemplated by the Local Rules for these motions.
How is some rando yelling on a golf cart in Florida immune from prosecution for defying a subpoena and ordering his henchmen to delete the evidence? How could a search pursuant to a judicially authorized warrant be “illegal?” And who exactly filed that pre-indictment warrant challenge that wasted months as Judge Cannon entertained nonsensical privilege theories on the basis of even more nonsensical jurisdictional theories until the 11th Circuit put a stop to it?
Guess we’ll find out tomorrow — or whenever the redacted versions hit the docket. But it will be versions, not version, since Judge Cannon told Trump this morning that he’ll have to fish each of those … motions out of the punch bowl and serve it up in its own glass.
“All pre-trial motions shall be filed on an individual basis to permit clear adjudication of the legal/factual issues presented and to facilitate record clarity and scheduling,” she wrote. “Further, all pre-trial motions shall state with particularity the filing party’s position on the need for a hearing on the motion (and if a hearing is requested, providing additional specifics on recommended scope/format/sequencing).”
Did Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche miss the memo that the the whole point of this exercise is to generate an avalanche of batshit motions, spend weeks briefing them as if they were serious, all the while daring the special counsel to appeal an adverse ruling and thus take the blame for knocking this case off the calendar? Well, Judge Cannon is here to remind Trump and his lawyers that this is how the game is played in her courtroom.
She also rejected Trump’s request to file redacted versions of his eleventy-seven motions tomorrow on the public docket, in a tacit admission of her own that the special counsel kinda had a point when he protested that Trump wants to put sensitive discovery materials, including grand jury testimony, on the public docket in violation of the standing protective order.
“With respect to Defendant Trump’s request to publicly file redacted versions of certain pre-trial motions on a temporary basis, the Court denies that request without prejudice,” she wrote, ordering yet another round of conferral and briefing by February 29, as the parties argue about whatever witness materials and confidential statements Trump’s trying to sneak onto the public docket this time.
Ten screaming lunatic motions … can’t hardly wait.
US v. Trump [SDFL Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.