Thursday, April 04, 2024

I have to focus my ire on Cannon but I can’t help but direct some at Jack Smith. He didn’t have to bring this case in the Southern District of Florida. New Jersey (Bedminster) was an option. D.C. (where the crime originated) another. 

Smith thought his case was so overwhelming that he could get a conviction even from a venire of the Mar-a-Lago membership rolls. He also reasoned from the same basis that a prompt trial was more likely if he avoided a needless venue challenge. Of the three jurisdictions, most of the action clearly took place in Palm Beach County. All reasonable considerations for a reasonable judgment, but it blew up in his face!

I remember talking to a federal prosecutor Smith's thinking and him saying, “Well, he may regret that. He doesn’t know the population up in Fort Pierce.” There is nothing Smith could have known about “pre-Trump” Judge Cannon that would have predicted this so my ire is mostly on her.