‘Trump Was Almost Perky’: Maggie Haberman Goes Inside Trump Docs Hearing — Says Jack Smith ‘Shocked’ At Judge’s Question
New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman said former President Donald Trump was “almost perky” and Special Counsel Jack Smith was “shocked” at a Florida hearing before Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon.
On Friday, Trump showed up for a hearing in the Espionage Act case being tried before Judge Cannon. Trump’s legal team filed a stack of motions demanding the dismissal of the case on the grounds that most experts find flimsy, at best. But Trump’s team and Smith have also been jousting about Trump’s demands for evidence in the case, which is the subject of another recent and scathing filing by Smith.
Friday’s hearing was intended for Cannon to hear arguments on those and other issues, and by all accounts, it was a better day for Trump than it was for Smith.
Haberman, along with colleagues Alan Feuer and Eileen Sullivan, reported on the hearing from the federal courthouse in Ft. Pierce, FL with some pretty intense details.
On her Twitter/X account, Haberman described Trump as “almost perky” and painted a scene in which Smith stared Trump down after a lunch break in a series of posts:
Trump was almost perky at the hearing for the documents case yesterday, where he watched a judge he appointed work over Smith’s prosecutors and he whispered and laughed to his clear new favorite lawyer, Todd Blanche
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The judge, Aileen Cannon, gave no clarity on whether there will be a trial on the mishandling classified documents/obstruction case before the election. Jack Smith was in the courtroom, at one point standing just after the lunch break and staring at Trump.
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When Cannon asked about the government making public its list of witnesses — something usually kept under seal until trial in high-profile cases — Jack Smith seemed shocked by the question, eyes widening and sitting straight up.
In her report, Haberman and her colleagues also noted a moment of tension between Cannon and Trump’s legal team:
At one point, one of the lawyers, Emil Bove, complained that Mr. Trump should not have been in court at all on Friday and should have been out campaigning in advance of primaries on Super Tuesday, neglecting to mention that his client was under no obligation to be in the courtroom. Judge Cannon cut him short, asking Mr. Bove to keep to legal issues.
Cannon did not issue decisions on the issues but did say at one point that “A lot of work needs to be done in the pretrial phase of this case,” an indication that a quick timeline may not be in the offing.
