Former President Donald Trump was described as “almost perky” and Special Counsel Jack Smith as “shocked” by New York Times journalist and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman during a Florida session presided over by Trump appointee Judge Aileen Cannon.
Trump appeared on Friday for a hearing in the Judge Cannon-tried Espionage Act case. A plethora of applications were filed by Trump’s legal team requesting the lawsuit be dismissed on the most tenuous of grounds, according to the majority of experts. However, there has also been back and forth between Smith and Trump’s staff on Trump’s demands for evidence in the case, which is the focus of Smith’s most recent and blistering filing.
Cannon was supposed to hear arguments on those and other matters during Friday’s hearing, and from all accounts, Trump had a better day than Smith.
Haberman provided some rather detailed reporting on the hearing from the federal courthouse in Ft. Pierce, Florida, along with colleagues Alan Feuer and Eileen Sullivan.
Haberman painted a picture of Smith staring down Trump following a lunch break on her Twitter/X account, calling Trump “almost perky.”
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.
Haberman and her colleagues also observed a tense exchange between Cannon and Trump’s legal staff in their report:
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.
Emil Bove, one of the attorneys, once expressed dissatisfaction, saying that Mr. Trump shouldn’t have been in court on Friday at all and instead have been out canvassing ahead of Super Tuesday’s primaries, failing to clarify that his client wasn’t required to be in court. Judge Cannon interrupted, requesting Mr. Bove to stick to the topic of law.
