'They've got nothing': Ex-prosecutor eyes a possible Trump 'Hail Mary'
Legal observers are on the lookout for what new legal tactics President-elect Donald Trump and his team of lawyers might attempt in the hours before Jack Smith’s looming report involving the 2020 election hits.
But the law isn’t on Trump’s side, according to CNN’s Elie Honig, who poured cold water on the incoming president’s desire to have the decision by Judge Aileen Cannon overturned in a higher court.
“First of all, Donald Trump and his co-defendants have zero – zero legal basis – to block this report from coming out,” Honig, a former federal prosecutor, said Monday.
He added that the report, which could shed new light on Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, could technically be released publicly as soon as Tuesday’s early morning hours.
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“What we're watching for in the next five and change hours is will Donald Trump's team take that last Hail Mary?” Honig said Monday in an interview with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. “Will they ask the court of appeals to block this? Will they ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block this?”
Trump has so far “failed at every turn” to prevent the report’s release, Honig noted. The CNN senior legal analyst said the special counsel is required by law to produce the report, and that the Justice Department has already indicated its intention to sign off on its release.
“And the ruling that we got earlier today from Judge Cannon in Florida, who's generally been very favorable to Donald Trump, said he has no basis to block this – especially because he's no longer a criminal defendant,” Honig told Blitzer. He added that because Trump has been dismissed from the case, he can no longer raise “constitutional concerns” involving a potential jury pool.
“So the arguments we've been seeing, Wolf, are really Hail Marys,” Honig said. “We’ll see if they try again between now and midnight, but legally they've got nothing.”
Honig concluded that even if Trump achieves a delay in the Supreme Court it would be “very, very brief.”
“So, I do think we'll see this soon,” Honig said of the report. “I do not think Donald Trump's team is going to be able to run out the clock until he's president next week.”
Watch the clip below or at this link.