Judge Cannon expanded the hearing on Trump’s request to declare the special counsel’s appointment invalid.

CNN
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Judge Eileen Cannon has once again torn up the court’s schedule in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case — pushing some of the legal questions that have been before her for months further down the road.

Cannon plans to hold a comprehensive hearing on Trump’s request to declare the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith invalid, signaling that he may be more willing than any other trial judge to veto the special counsel’s authority.

The planned hearing adds a new, unusual twist to the federal criminal case against the former president: Cannon said Tuesday that various political partisans and constitutional scholars unrelated to the case may join oral arguments later this month.

The unusual rise of arguments in a criminal case — filed a year ago this week — is that The trial won’t be seen until next yearIf there is

Wednesday, The cannon went furtherAdding an Inquiry Gag order request from prosecutors Limit Trump’s rhetoric about law enforcement and spend more time hearing arguments on the special counsel issue.

Cannon will hear arguments on those issues and Trump’s bid during the week of June 21 The evidence in his case must be thrown out Collected by FBI in 2022 Mar-a-Lago or search provided by his former lawyer Evan Corcoran to a grand jury.

At the same time, he delayed other hearings without fixing a new date.

A recent example of Cannon’s approach to national security is changing the calendar: scheduling hours in court for arguments that other courts have largely denied, and p.Addressing various legal issues for months.

Similar challenges to special counsel investigations of Trump and other high-profile targets have failed from coast to coast in recent years: Hunter Biden’s lawyer got nowhere with judges in Los Angeles and Delaware; It’s Paul Manafort Arguments collapsed When the former Trump campaign chairman challenged special counsel Robert Mueller’s authority; And Andrew Miller, a former associate of Roger Stone, lost his challenge to Mueller’s mandate.

Even other federal trial judges, who allow special counsels in criminal cases, could rule differently in Cannon.

Cannon’s signal to Republicans that he is willing to entertain challenges to special counsel comes the same week. Attorney General Merrick Garland is standing by For using special advice.

The issue before Cannon in the Southern District of Florida federal court is likely to remain a political debate until Cannon hears on June 21 the special counsel’s legal authority to prosecute a defendant.

Cannon has already taken a starkly different approach from other trial-level federal judges who have handled criminal cases charged by recent special counsel offices — including five since Trump became president.

While others have moved quickly to investigate — special counsel David Weiss is prosecuting his case against Hunter Biden in Delaware this week, eight months after the impeachment — Cannon has moved slowly on the pre-trial issues of Trump and his two co-defendants. Many of the key legal questions to be decided in the classified records case, which the Justice Department first brought against Trump last June, have yet to be decided.

It is highly unusual for a federal trial judge to allow a third-party group not connected to a criminal case to argue in court. That work is largely reserved for bringing and arguing groups of defendants against judicial prosecutors in courts across the country. It is rare to allow third parties to argue in court in appellate situations.

“It’s ridiculous that these motions are even being entertained with a hearing. It’s ridiculous that third parties are allowed to comment on the investigation,” Washington, DC-based national security law expert Bradley Moss told CNN.

But Cannon wants three separate lawyers to plead before him. Two of those groups support Trump’s position, dismissing the case against him and saying the special counsel lacks jurisdiction to prosecute for various constitutional reasons. A third group says the judiciary should ensure the use of special counsel.

Two former Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys general, Edwin Meese and Michael Mukesi, are part of a group of so-called “friends of the court” on Trump’s side, and Cannon is hearing from them. According to court records, all three groups, excluding the judiciary and the defendants’ lawyers, will be allowed to argue for 30 minutes each.

Meese and Mugesi have special insights to share with the judge, they say, given their former roles leading the judiciary.

Meanwhile, Cannon on Wednesday delayed a previously planned multi-day proceeding where Trump’s team wanted to question federal officials under oath about how they conducted the investigation.

Trump’s legal team is trying to convince a judge to force the government to change More records from remote offices Administrative Division. The special counsel’s office argued in person to Cannon several months ago that making federal officials witnesses at this stage of the case — as Trump wanted — would be an unprecedented abuse of court.

Cannon still agreed to the investigation Trump wanted. But that hearing is no longer on the schedule.

This story has been updated with additional updates.