So you think they got Trump where they want him, huh? Wait to hear what this former federal prosecutor turned high-end defense attorney has to say

• It sure looks like they really got Trump where they want him this time!

• Except he’ll probably get a favorable judge.

• And she will have enormous power to prevent Trump from being convicted.

If you think former President Donald Trump is finally, really, actually, but for real this time, about to face justice – hold on a moment.

It can have an easy exit.

Yes, it looks like this new indictment against Trump is strong enough. Even Fox News’ top legal commentator thinks so. He called it “extremely overwhelming”. And neither do we see as much skepticism as after the indictment of New York Attorney General Alvin Bragg.

But a former federal prosecutor turned top defense attorney, Ken White, sees a quick way out of trouble for Trump.

He said all Trump needed was a judge completely in the tank for him — a judge who is willing to sacrifice his reputation to protect him.

And guess what?

That’s what it looks like Trump will get: Judge Aileen Cannon.

As my colleagues, including Kimberly Leonard, reported on Friday, Cannon was widely criticized last year when she ruled that an independent arbitrator should review any documents the FBI allegedly seized at Mar-a-Lago.

The Justice Department appealed the decision and was rewarded with a stern reprimand of Cannon by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The smackdown was particularly notable because it came from a judging panel that included several Republican appointees.

Besides being a fancy defense attorney, White also co-hosts a legal podcast with Josh Barro called “Serious Trouble.”

Reflecting on Cannon’s decision to appoint an independent arbitrator (referred to as a “special counsel”) and other decisions she has made as part of the government’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, Barro mentioned to White on the podcast that Cannon had shown a “willingness to behave in a way that most judges probably wouldn’t, even if they were partisan Republicans.”

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“Of course,” White replied. “She’s ready to break the Meatloaf rule: I would do anything for love. But I won’t do that.”

White says there are usually a “number of factors” that smooth even partisan judges and move them “in the middle.”

He listed some of them: “Their relationships with other colleagues, their reputation, their hopes of being elevated to a higher office, their place in history, you know, the cocktail parties, the advice of lawyers, all that kind of stuff.”

“But sometimes,” White said, “judges don’t give a damn and Judge Cannon’s behavior in this case in the past has been several very long steps in that direction of giving a damn.”

White suspects Cannon is imagining what she might get out of a second Trump presidency.

“You have a situation where it’s not even hard to imagine: she acquits Trump, Trump gets elected, Trump elevates her to the 11th Circuit or the Supreme Court. He would totally do that. His fans would absolutely love it. okay with that. And that would just be a giant middle finger for the country. And I mean, he would.”

So how, exactly, could Cannon protect Trump and end this case against him in an instant?

“She can delay things forever by making unappealable rulings. She can make rulings that, while they don’t solve the case, make things very difficult, like excluding evidence by saying evidence has been erroneously collected,” White said. “And that can be something that has a very unfavorable standard on appeal.”

“So, for example, if she started to dismiss all these statements made by Trump, ‘It’s too damaging. It’s unfair. I’m keeping it out.’ If it goes up on appeal, it’s an abuse of discretion standard. And normally you can’t appeal before the case.”

And Cannon could go even further than that, White said.

“More radically, she can do things that can’t be fixed. Once a jury is assembled, she can dismiss the case. Grant a motion for a directed verdict of acquittal after the government case. And then we’re done. You can’t be retried, you can’t be revised. It’s over.

White’s analysis on the Serious Trouble podcast left his co-host, Josh Barro, a little dumbfounded.

Barro asked White, “Is it possible that the Justice Department is dragging us into a situation that not only may fail to secure convictions here, but may end up setting off a chain of events that is quite detrimental to federal justice? “

“Absolutely,” White said.

He continued.

“People say that by accusing Trump, you annoy his base. You make it more likely that he will be elected. And then he’s going to have a more conservative justice system, isolate himself more, forgive himself, all this guy And everything is true All of this is perfectly possible.

“But if you’re the Department of Justice, you can’t think that way. Okay, you just can’t think that we have to get out of the rule of law now because it’s too expensive. politically.”

“If they do that, then they kind of give up.”

Read the original article on Business Insider