CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Asks Maggie Haberman If Trump Showing Up To Court Could Be Message To Trump-Appointed Judge

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins asked New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman if former President Donald Trump’s showing up for court could be a message to Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon that he cares about the case.

Thursday morning, Trump showed up for a hearing in the Espionage Act case being tried before Judge Cannon. At issue is one of Trump’s many motions to dismiss the case, this one on the basis of the Presidential Records Act.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins interviewed Haberman about several of Trump’s cases and other issues.

The anchor wondered if Trump would show up, and if that would be a strategic message to Cannon — and Haberman noted that Cannon was appointed by Trump:

COLLINS: But tomorrow, he is going to be in that courtroom, in Florida. He doesn’t have to be there.

HABERMAN: Right.

COLLINS: And I know we’ve talked about how it’s a political strategy. But is it also a legal strategy, to show, I’m showing up here, I care about this, to Judge Cannon in any way?

HABERMAN: I think it’s less important that Donald Trump be at these hearings than say, Walt Nauta, his co-defendant, or Carlos De Oliveira, his co-defendant, because those are people who, I think, are in a certain way, in greater jeopardy, and would be in greater jeopardy, at sentencing.

I think Trump could not show up. I do think he wants to be there. There is an argument, and lawyers have made this to me, that it is better for a defendant to be in court.

We know that Trump sort of over-learned the lesson of not showing up to the first E. Jean Carroll trial in 2023. However, based on how Trump behaved, in the other civil actions, in New York, one was another E. Jean Carroll trial, one was New York Attorney General trial, I’m not sure how much his presence helped him.

This is a different setting. This is a judge he appointed. And it’s a different case.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.