Former assistant Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks thinks Trump is in for a bumpy ride with his ridiculous delay tactics in the DC January 6th case. Trump tried getting a three day delay to respond to Jack Smith's protective order request, which was quickly shot down by Judge Tanya Chutkan.
Wine-Banks made an appearance on MSNBC this Saturday, and was much more hopeful than I am that Trump "getting tired of losing" will somehow be a deterrent from him continuing the behavior we've seen from him over and over again during all of these criminal prosecution cases. He couldn't even make it another day without threatening another witness, Mike Pence.
I do agree with Wine-Banks that this judge isn't going to put up with the delay tactics, and why his lawyers are going to have a rough time trying to play his usual game of stalling forever this time around:
Wine-Banks said on Saturday that she can't think of any defense that the lawyers could have for seeking a delay "on something that is posing a clear and present danger to witnesses" and others.
"He, Donald Trump, has threatened and talked very ill of Jack Smith, and of Jack Smith's wife," she said, adding that Trump's legal team has been putting forth baseless arguments while seeking extra time to form responses.
"He has gone on and on, the lawyers are making ridiculous arguments, you mentioned the three-year argument. We should have three years for discovery. Well, excuse me, Jack Smith was only appointed eight months ago. That's all they've had. So he doesn't need any more than that," she said, noting that the "argument that they should be exempt from the Speedy Trial Act and wait till after the election is so absurd."
She added:
"They are arguing, and I don't know how they do this with a straight face, they are saying, the Speedy Trial Act is only for the benefit of the defendant, so he can waive it. That is not true. The Speedy Trial Act is for the people who bring the case, for the prosecution, which represents we the people of the United States. We who are the victims of his alleged conspiracy. We who were deprived of the right, or would have been if he succeeded, deprived of the right to have our votes counted. So, the Speedy Trial Act protects us when witness memories fade, when witnesses could die. You have to have a speedy trial for us, as well as for him. And so, when you go to what he's going to argue next week in front of the judge, I honestly cannot imagine that the judge isn't going to say, you lose. He's going to get tired of losing, I hope, and stop this nonsense."
