SOP

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Hunter Biden is getting away with a slap on the wrist when growing evidence uncovered by the House Oversight Committee reveals the Bidens engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery.

Read my full statement.👇 pic.twitter.com/9swtTaUUQu

— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) June 20, 2023

That would be the evidence on the tapes nobody has seen from a source who disappeared three years ago and an investigation by the Trump DOJ that said there was no evidence of anything?

 Yeah, no.

This is fully consistent with reports about what the DOJ — opened by TRUMP's DOJ — has been investigating since at least December 2020 https://t.co/yM9haGrYk2

— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) June 20, 2023

Oh look, Joe Biden didn't replace the politically-appointed Trump prosecutor who ran this investigation from the jump, allowing him to see the whole thing through. https://t.co/rJbH1ub0Xq

— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) June 20, 2023

In other legal news:

Aileen Cannon Issues Another Perfectly Routine Orderhttps://t.co/BndM8MhK61

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) June 20, 2023

Yes, she did. Quelle surprise. The non-routine thing would be if she didn’t enter this order and went back to deferring to Trump’s status as she did before. Let me explain what I see from dim memories of Federal Court.

Courts run on rules of procedure. It how things get done and how lawyers know what to do and what to expect. There are rules all federal courts must follow, and local rules each district establishes for itself. The SDFL has rules (apparently; I haven’t read them) establishing a “rocket docket.” That simply means they try not to let cases linger on their dockets (court calendar). 

The order Judge Cannon entered seems (I’m not licensed in SDFL, so I’m being vague and general here) to be the standard order used in the SDFL. It follows the Speedy Trial Act, which sets 70 days as the time between filing a criminal action and trial. That doesn’t mean the case can’t take longer to go to trial, or that parties can’t ask for continuances (what some call “delays”). The court controls its docket, and parties before it deserve due process of law; especially criminal defendants. A continuance is a matter of due process.

Yes, Cannon has a history of giving Trump much more than he deserves. That’s why the 11th circuit threw out the case she allowed, and never should have. Will she be as egregious again? Well, she hasn’t been so far.

Due process allows defendants time to prepare a defense. The CIPA sets the procedures for protecting national security while still allowing prosecution of the Espionage Act. Trump’s lawyers need security clearances, and that may not happen by the trial date this order sets. There are several reasons why this case won’t go to trial in 70 days. But none of them mean Trump is “getting away with something” or that Cannon is biased in his favor.

Change the facts, change the outcome.  And so far, the fact is Judge Cannon is following standard SDFL procedures.

This order is boilerplate, and all it shows is that Cannon is, thus far, treating the trial of a former President as she would any other trial.

It is also subject to change upon motion of the parties. That’s the way the system works.

I reviewed Cannon’s entire criminal case history, she has always set a super fast trial date, as a matter of practice, and then repeatedly continued it as trial matters arose. In every single case, big and small, save for a few quick plea deals. https://t.co/cDh4eLrl00

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) June 20, 2023

If Cheney reviewed all the criminal cases in the SDFL, would he find the same thing?

Probably.