Maggie Haberman Says Trump Team Feels Good About Docs Case Because ‘Trump Appointed’ The Judge — Believes She’s Benefiting Him

New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman said ex-President Donald Trump’s team feels “pretty confident” about the classified documents case because Trump appointed the judge, and believes she does things to “benefit” him.

Judge Aileen Cannon — a Trump appointee — was selected at random to preside over the trial on 37 counts against ex-President Donald Trump related to Espionage Act violations. This week, she issued an order extending some deadlines, but did not delay the start of Trump’s trial.

On Friday night’s edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, Haberman told host Anderson Cooper that Judge Cannon will probably end up granting the delay, and that right or wrong, Trump and his lawyers think she’s working to “benefit” Trump because he appointed her:

COOPER: The federal judge overseeing the former president’s classified documents case delivered his team a major setback today. Judge Aileen Cannon said, she will not delay the trial start date schedule for May of next year.

It’s something they’ve repeatedly demanded. Last week she appeared to lean toward a delay in the need to make it, in her words, “reasonable adjustments,” to the timing of the case. That did not happen today.

But she did say that she will revisit the decision in March just days before he’s said to go on trial and the Special Counsel’s other federal investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Judge Cannon today did agree with the former president’s team that they need more time to prepare for the case. And she pushed back several filing deadlines, including those that involve reviewing the classified documents at the heart of this case.

I’m joined now by CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman of the New York Times. She’s also the author of Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America. So what do you think, Maggie, that judges decision to not delay the classified documents means for the former president and his team?

MAGGIE HABERMAN: Anderson, I think it’s a play for time. She literally was essentially splitting the decision. She gave herself until next year to revisit it. As you note, this is going to happen around the time that he is going on trial in D.C. or scheduled to. So she will look at that calendar and decide whether she has to move hers. And there are reasons to believe that there would be movement in the other trial and she would have to.

The Trump team still feels pretty confident. And granted, a lot of this is because Trump appointed Judge Aileen Cannon. And so fairly or not, he reads into whatever she does and believes that it’s going to benefit him. But there is reason to believe that she might delay it until after the election.

I think she is going to look at all of the other cases and what is happening and then make a decision. But I don’t think this is over for the Trump team.

Watch above via Anderson Cooper 360.