Breaking news and Donald Trump's criminal hush money case in New York. Trump losing a new bid to delay the trial, now set to begin 12 days from now. It's good to see you, this chief legal affairs correspondent. Paula Reid. What do we know, Paula? Well, Wolf, the judge overseeing Trump's criminal case in Manhattan, he has rejected this last minute bid to delay the case by arguing that it should wait until after the Supreme Court rules on Trump's presidential immunity claim in the federal January
six case. Now, the New York case, that's about allegations he falsified business records to cover up an affair with a porn star. So it's unlikely presidential immunity would apply. And the judge noted that the lawyers, they had months to file this motion. They only did so a few weeks before this case is scheduled to begin. But this is just one of a series of moves the Trump team has made to try to get the case delayed. But right now, the case is scheduled to start on April 15th, and it could be
the only case, criminal case that Trump faces before the November election. The January six case is on hold waiting for the Supreme Court decision. The Georgia case has been delayed by efforts to disqualify Fani Willis. And then down in Florida, the judge overseeing the classified documents case has drawn things out with a series of unusual moves. And last night, the special counsel made it clear he's had it. We very much look forward to presenting our case to a jury of citizens in the Southern
District of Florida. A trial in the Mar a Lago classified documents case appears highly unlikely to happen before the 2024 election. And special counsel Jack Smith expressing frustration with Judge Eileen Cannon in a new filing late Tuesday. Smith's team said Cannon had ordered briefings based on a fundamentally flawed legal premise that had no basis in law or fact. My sincere thanks to the president for the honor of this nomination. Prosecutors harshly criticizing the Trump appointed judges req
uest for hypothetical jury instructions. She asked both sides to take into account the former president's claim that he had broad authority to take classified documents under the Presidential Records Act. Whatever documents the president decides to take with him, he has the right to do so. It's an absolute right. The post-Watergate law covers what documents belong to the government after an administration leaves the White House. But prosecutors have repeatedly said that law is not relevant becau
se Trump is accused of obstruction and storing highly classified material in a bathroom and other unsecure locations at his Florida State. Prosecutors also point out that telling a jury that Trump had the authority to take records he wanted from the White House would make it nearly impossible to secure a conviction. Prosecutors insist that legal premise is wrong, and a jury instruction that reflects that premise would distort the trial. But Trump's attorneys, who are also asked to weigh in here,
suggested that the judge told jurors Trump was authorized to possess a category of documents defined as personal records, both during and after his term in office. The idea that classified documents belonged to Trump dismissed, said, is pure fiction. I was a trial judge for 37 years. I have never seen an order like this. Former federal judge Jeremy Fogel says the government will likely appeal if he makes that decision. And then the case goes to trial and then he's acquitted, as he certainly wou
ld be with that instruction. The government has no recourse. There's double jeopardy. But an appeal will likely further delay the trial, something Trump has been seeking in all his criminal cases. Our team went through the entire docket in this case and found that Judge Canon still has over a dozen outstanding motions to decide, and those include nine motions to dismiss, three other major defense motions trying to attack the case. Also, a decision about how much witness information should be kep
t under seal. And the biggest outstanding decision of all. When will this case go to trial? It's penciled in for late May. It's been over a month since she had arguments or both sides weighed in on how long they think the case should be delayed. But as of now, Wolf, it doesn't appear that this case will go before the November election. Very significant. Paula Reed, thank you very much. I want to bring in our legal analysts right now, Ellie Hoenig and Carrie Cordero. Ellie, how rare is it to see
this filing from the special counsel, taking a very aggressive tone? Well, Wolf, it's exceedingly rare to see a prosecutor express this type of frustration so directly, so unapologetically. And I have to say, I understand to an extent where Jack Smith's coming from. When I was a prosecutor, I had occasional moments when I was very frustrated with judges. Ordinarily, what you do is you take a deep breath and you take it down a notch or two. Jack Smith apparently has not done that. But the reason
he's so frustrated here is because judge can and seems like she's entertaining the idea of instructing the jury at trial on this Presidential Records Act defense, which as Paula, I think just very nicely laid out, lacks basis in fact or law and the other a source of frustration for Jack Smith that's palpable is he can feel the trial date slipping away. It is getting less and less likely every day to the point where it's almost an impossibility now that this case will be tried before the election
. Very significant. Carrie, legal experts, as you know, they have criticized Judge Cannon's approach and called her inexperienced. Do you agree with those concerns that are boiling over right now about Judge Cannon's handling of this case? Well, I generally don't like from any quarters sort of the personal criticisms of judges. All judges are new to the bench at some point. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're incapable of handling the matters that come before them. She has, in this particul
ar case, ruled favorably for the former president a number of times, even on issues that in these types of cases should have been a little more straightforward. Although I would note that not every decision that she has made has gone in the former president's favor on this particular set of requests for jury instructions. She has gone outside of the bounds of what we normally would see in a case involving classified information and a prosecution on those issues. Ali, all that being said, is this
still is this filing still a very risky move for the special counsel, Jack Smith? Well, I think Jack Smith did the right thing in this filing. He said, hey, Judge, you should not give this Presidential Records act instruction to the jury because it lacks basis in fact or law. What would be risky, Wolf and Jack Smith, more than hints at this in the in the filing, is that if he loses on this, he suggests he will appeal. Now, if he wants to appeal, he has to do it before the trial, because once th
e trial starts, once you get to a jury, it's going to be double jeopardy. Prosecutors cannot appeal and not guilty verdict. If there's a not guilty verdict, it's over. Everyone goes home. So Jack Smith is trying to anticipate that. But if he does file an appeal on this day, we don't know if he'd win. I suspect he might. Well win. But, B, that would completely wipe out any chance of getting this case tried in 2024. Interesting. Carrie, even if the special counsel is first frustrated judges have n
early carte blanche authority to manage their dockets. So do you see this trial being set any time soon? I don't think so. I mean, I take Ali's point that it's getting less and less likely that this trial actually happens before the election. First, just because it involves classified information that automatically involves an entire set of processes that generally slow things down in any national security case. Then layered on top of it, you have the fact that it's involving a former president
who has made motions to dismiss on every possible conceivable opportunity that he has. And then now we also have this judge who is proceeding in an unusual way, because if the jury instructions that she wants to see go forward and on one angle of them, one of the requests that she had would effectively shut down the entire case and make the prosecution impossible to win on for the prosecutor. So there really is an imperative that they, the prosecutors, get clarity from her on her interpretation
of the law and have the opportunity to appeal. And if there's an appeal, then this absolutely will slow down further. Carrie and Ali, thanks to both of you very much.
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