Trump’s strategy, unsurprisingly, is to derail the case, knowing that the clock is ticking.
His best hope is to push things out to the next election or beyond because if he wins, he can pardon himself; if he doesn’t, he’ll hope someone might do so for him.
After years of skirting accountability and shattering norms, Trump now faces a legal reckoning.Credit: Illustration by Matt Golding
To that end, Trump’s lawyers are expected to file a motion to dismiss the case, and if that doesn’t work, expect them to use all the delaying tools at their disposal: haggling over legal process; fighting over documents provided in discovery; seeking to see classified material that requires clearance.
Trump also lucked out by drawing Judge Aileen Cannon, whom he appointed to the bench when he was president.
After all, it’s Cannon’s job to set the pace and guidelines for how the proceedings will unfold, but critics aren’t convinced she’ll expedite the process - particularly after she issued a ruling last year that initially slowed the FBI review of the classified documents.
And the former president also has something else in his favour: one single juror and the concept of reasonable doubt.
Protester Domenic Santana, dressed as an inmate and towing a fake ball and chain, is arrested after throwing himself in front of Trump’s car.Credit: AP
As damning as the indictment may be, Special Counsel Jack Smith would still have to convince 12 people that the former president not only “wilfully retained” classified documents but also showed them to others, moved them around, and deliberately obstructed the attempts to retrieve them.
The fact that the jury would be drawn from Trump’s home turf of Florida, a once Democratic-leaning state that has increasingly shifted to the Republicans, makes Smith’s challenge all the harder.
As for Trump’s expected defence?
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In the court of law, he will argue that he had presidential authority to take the documents from the White House under the Presidential Records Act.
And in the court of public opinion, he will claim that he’s the victim of selective prosecution and a two-tiered justice system that favours Democrats over Republicans.
After becoming the first former US president to face federal charges over national security, Trump is now making his legal issues central to his campaign for another shot at the White House. It’s quite a strategy.