John,

Today *should* have been the beginning of the trial in Donald Trump’s classified documents case, but instead, the judge paused the proceedings indefinitely.

As a reminder, almost a year ago, Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with 37 felonies related to his handling of and refusal to return hundreds of documents containing classified information.

The case was assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee. Trump’s attorneys have inundated her with efforts to delay the trial, and instead of handling the matters quickly, Judge Cannon has let motions languish for weeks and granted repeated delays.

These delays are exactly what Trump wants—and his inner circle is reportedly so pleased that they are calling the judge “a godsend” and observed that she is “obviously in the tank for Trump.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s other federal criminal case is also being held up in the courts—the Supreme Court to be exact. The Court heard Trump’s appeal last month, but has yet to release a decision about whether he has total legal immunity as a former president.

That should have been an easy call.

As Justice Jackson pointed out in the oral arguments, President Nixon asked for a pardon after Watergate, and he got one. If former presidents had immunity, why would he have needed a pardon?

And Justice Kagan rightly reminded Trump’s lawyer, “The framers did not put an immunity clause into the Constitution…they were reacting against a monarch who claimed to be above the law.”

But instead of shutting Trump’s argument down quickly, the Supreme Court is still making its decision. We know the Court can act quickly—as it did in our 14th Amendment case.

If the Court ruled as quickly on presidential immunity as it did on Trump v. Anderson, we would have a decision by the end of this week. But we’re not holding our breath.

As always, if Trump is getting treated differently by the courts than any other criminal defendant, it’s only to his benefit.

Thank you for reading,

CREW