What well garland do. Im Michael Smerconish in philadelphia, Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland may eventually make a singular decision that determines the outcome of the 2024 election, whether the doj will continue to push for donald trump to be tried before election day in the federal case, premised on alleged Election Interference for months. Here, ive delivered commentaries focused on the timing of this particular prosecution because i think its most perilous to trump, and ive often done so with the assistance of elie honig will join me again in a moment. Heres the issue on wednesday, scotus granted cert and announced that the high court will hear Donald TrumpsImmunity Defense i dont think the ultimate outcome is in dispute. I think trump loses that claim. In my opinion, its unlikely its illogical that the court will provide Blanket Immunity from criminal prosecution to an american president more important is the process, the timing of the courts Decision Garland told cnns evan perez in january that the cases were brought last year and that the timing is now in the hands of the judicial system. We know that the supreme courts Oral Arguments on trumps Immunity Claim are scheduled for the week of april 22. We dont know for sure, but it suggests that decision is probably then going to come in june and judge Tanya Chutkan has said that she will provide the parties with three more months to prepare for trial. That means were talking end of summer coinciding with labor day, the traditional start of the final sprint toward election day. The first debate is scheduled for september 16 at texas state university, and voting begins as early as september 23. States minnesota, virginia, and south dakota but the doj has a Standing Policy of not taking certain actions close in time to an election five recent attorneys general have all signed the same memo affirming the importance of keeping politics out of investigations and criminal charges republican Michael Mukasey in 2008, democrats eric holder in 2012, Loretta Lynch in 2016 republican bill barr in 2020, and democrat Merrick Garland in 2022 theyve all used the same language including this paragraph, quote, simply put, politics must play no role in the decisions of the federal investigators or prosecutors regarding any investigations or criminal charges. Im going to stress this part. Law enforcement officers and prosecutors may never select the timing of investigative steps or criminal charges for the purpose of affecting any election or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or Political Party the us attorneys manual has similar language. And when you think about it at all, makes sense if Law Enforcement officers and prosecutors may never select the timing of investigative steps or criminal charges for the purpose of affecting any election then perhaps the logic would preclude them from influencing the timing of a trial for the purpose of affecting an election in the maralago document case, special Prosecutor Jack Smith asked florida judge Aileen Cannon for a july 8 trial date. Trumps lawyers are asking for it not to be held until after the election. Theyre arguing that otherwise, itll be Election Interference yesterday, friday, judge cannon held a fourhour hearing on that case, but did not make any trial scheduling moves. She did, however, raised the issue of the socalled 60 day rule Special Counsel, prosecutor jay bratt said the doj policy does not apply to cases that have already been charged and that the department had reviewed the policy to ensure they were in compliance the trial date in the january 6 case will be set by judge chutkan, not the doj but rest assured, trump will continue with his delay tactics, hoping that he will win the election and either have doj stop the prosecution or selfpardon the way the doj influences the trial date will be in either agreeing or opposing trumps delay tactics. So heres the question for Merrick Garland does the policy which avoids an appearance of politics in investigative steps or criminal charges extend to actually trying a case. Arguably the investigation is over. The criminal charges theyve already been filed. So prosecuting trump in the leadup to the president ial election would not tell technically run afoul of those doj docs, like jay bratt said yesterday in the maralago case nevertheless, does Merrick Garland want the perception of putting a former president on trial at a time when he will be his partys nominee. If garland is hesitant to do so, then wheres the line for when it becomes inappropriate to try trump . Is it 60 days before an election . Is it 90 days before an election . Theres no precedent for this situation, no rule book governs this particular scenario truly, we are in uncharted waters. And Merrick Garland is holding a lot of the cards it all leads me to todays Poll Question today at smerconish. Com, go and vote on this. Is it appropriate for doj to try trump in the fall of 2020 for joining me now is elie honig, cnn senior legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, elie, thanks so much for coming back i think i made clear, judge. Judges set trial dates. Judges du but to what extent can a Prosecutor Affect that decision well, the prosecutor has a substantial say in this decision, michael, in every case, not just this one, theres always this sort of push and pull going on where prosecutors saying, judge, wed like to try this case soon, you usually sooner and typically defendants are seeking to push it back. Donald trump did not invent the delay tactic. Take my word for it. Ultimately, it is the judges call, but you are absolutely as a doj prosecutor, you are making a conscious specific strategy call in when you ask a judge for the election and judges do take that heavily into account okay. 60 days, 90 days. Where can i go and read it . Like where is this standard elie . It is nowhere, michael, so this is sort of an urban legend within doj. It comes from that twopage letter that you just showed in your introduction, which has sent by a. G. s of both parties over the last two decades or so. But that letter, what it says is that we at doj need to be careful and avoid taking publicly visible steps on a case that might affect the election too close to the election, but nowhere does it actually say the number 60. In fact, theres a little bit of variance where i was a prosecutor in new york, we were always taught it was 60 days, but you can get people from other districts federally who will say they were taught. It was 90 days, but the spirit of the rule throughout is basically we dont want to do things that will be visible to the public that might influence an election too close to an election. You and i have spoken in the past of how relative to jack smiths pleadings, the election is the voldemort, that which is never spoken explicitly. Nevertheless, if he is pushing to get the case tried before the election is he running afoul of the documents that i showed the Attorney General memos that weve been referencing so jack smiths team was asked that exact question as you discussed earlier in court yesterday, and they sort of threaded the needle and said, well, no, because we interpret that rule that we dont do things close to the election that only applies to investigative steps and the right, it applies to, for example, you would never do a Search Warrant on candidate 12 days before an election. You would never indict a candidate 14 days before an election. But if you look elsewhere, if you look at the actual justice manual now this is essentially the Internal Bible for doj. We all had them printed out on our desks. Theres a provision in there that says prosecutors should never select the timing of any action. Let me say that again. Any action with the election in mind, with the timing of the election in mind. And its hard for me to square that with jack smith making decisions, asking for trial dates, asking for everything to be mega expedited because even though we wont say it, i dont think anyone would disagree that whats motivated hitting him is the election day. So i do think that that violates dojs own internal manual so at a certain point in that hearing yesterday, in florida, i know this is probably confusing confusing for people who are not in the weeds on it, but at a certain point in that hearing the Trump Lawyers then of course they dont want the case tried before the election. But at a certain point they said, well, maybe august would be appropriate. And i wondered, la are they potentially using the florida case to block the january 6 case because as between the two and im curious to hear your thoughts. They probably rather he be tried for the maralago documents, then the Election Interference in dc thats exactly my read. Theres a strategic play happening here that we just saw it yesterday. So i believe that Donald Trumps team thinks that they would if they had to choose, they would rather try the florida case, the documents case, then the dc case. First of all, trumps team is going to have a way more favorable jury pool in florida than they will in dc. If you just look at the popularity numbers, the Voting Numbers in second of all, i think theyve calculated that there will be more political damage done on the january 6 case. Its just more damaging conduct thats more problematic for donald trump. And so when they asked yesterday, the job judge in florida for an august trial date, i dont think they really want an august trial, but i think what theyre trying to do is block out august, september, october to make it impossible for the dc case, the january 6 case, to get moved that and by the way, if a trial date is set for july or august in florida, thats not set in stone. Judges set trial dates and then Something Else comes up and they move them back all the time. So i think theres a twostep here. I think theyre saying okay, florida judge, will accept the trial in august, and then watch her them in june or july. Trumps team to go back and go. Something happened, problem with the classified documents. Now you need to move it past the election. Quick final question as between Merrick Garland and jack smith, who is calling the shot as to how aggressive to be in pursuing for a trial even if it means in the fall well, it should be jack smiths decision. If we look at the guidelines about that govern Special Counsel, it says that the Special Counsel is not subject to the daytoday supervision of the Attorney General, Merrick Garland has made very clear. Im not calling the shots here, but i do think its also worth noting, michael, if we have two apportion blame here within deal doj lets remember the reason we are under a time crunch is because doj had unilateral control of this case. And when they charge it and they did not charge it for two and quarters years. Most of that blame falls on Merrick Garland, jack smith actually indicted this case about nine months after he took over. And so when they indicted this case, i dont know if people even remember this. This case was indicted in august of 202037 months ago. And when they indicted in august 2023 doj left themselves and all of us with about one year to get this case tried an enormously complex case. They should have no, there would have been major constitutional issues like this. I wrote about it in my book before for this case was even indicted. It was obvious they let themselves with not enough time. And the fact that were in a time crunch now, i think mainly the blame here falls on doj, specifically Merrick Garland its a great point. Elie. Thank you. As always, really appreciate it theres a lot there to unpack. I want to know what you think. Go to my website. Its smerconish. Com. Answer todays Poll Question. Now that youve heard the briefing from elie, is it appropriate for doj to try trump in the fall of 2024 . What are your thoughts . Thoughts hit me up on social media. Ill read some throughout the course of the program. What do we have . Be careful what you wish for so far these indictments have only fueled the trump campaign. I would not like to be a prognosticator can i say sache to your point when you say theyve only fueled the trump campaign, catherine, im sorry to catch up. Cold do you have the full screen of the New York Times poll that came out this morning from sienna college, because this is the very latest data from there. It is 48, 43. So to your point, sache, be careful what you wish for. And i get it. Its more than just this issue, but thats that is the most its recent polling on the state of the president ial race still to come Super Tuesday. Super tuesday is this week. But while the results of the major parties seem preordained, the third the party situation is heating up rfk junior just got on the ballot in the crucial states of arizona and georgia and is still in play for the libertarian slot. Meanwhile, friday no labels the next friday, no labels is going to gather reps from all 50 states and decide are they moving ahead with a ticket . One person who has already pulled out as nikki haley plot us. Its conventional wisdom that the core issue for republicans is the border and for democrats is abortion and reproductive rights. How come when pollsters ask . Voters whats important to you right now . Abortion didnt make the list. The editorinchief of gallup is here to explain in just a moment. While on the topic, if you subscribe to my free Daily Newsletter, youre going to get exclusive editorial cartoons from the legends. But what rob rogers sketch for us this week im Fred Pleitgen in tehran. And this is cnn im sorry, body for knowing about actives. But giving 100 of them to my face, the fear no more body can act of serums with Hyaluronic Acid that quench vitamin c that brightened and pro sara minds that ethan everywhere, new doves theorem, body get down or get fomo, we had to take our old gas heating that was a huge project. I was so overwhelmed because i started contacting people off of angie to work with people that knew what they were doing. It was a game changer, get started today at andy. Com. Are you still struggling with your bra . Its time for you to try next, makers of the worlds Comfy Us Wireless Bras for revolutionary support without under wires and sizes up to a g can find your new favorite brought today at next. Com. One aliyah. High. I went to match the term and got matched with the best mattress for me. Have 120 nice to decide if i like it. And they have a low price guarantee i just had a great night asleep the right mattress matters will find yours mattress firm. Choice hotels is a family of brands or the hotel for any traveller you want to be like number one, chef, dad, cook it up a free hot breakfast for the entire family at a Comfort Hotel. Mom made this. I added the garnish stay twice and get a free night when you booked direct, what would motivate you to lose weight . I would say the money money, money because they need the money, money, money. I got to help you when up to 10,000, losing weight were helping wager get paid to get healthy at healthy wager. Com with dry eye symptoms, key, kelvin that inflammation might be to blame overthecounter wide drops can provide temporary relief and say dry can provide lasting relief. He targets inflammation. They can cause dry eye eye treats the signs symptoms of Dry Eye Disease, dont use it allergic disease common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort, or blurred vision when applied in unusual taste sensation. Why way . Ask your dr. About a 90 day prescription . It can pay as little as 0 sidro. Have you ever considered getting a walk in tub . Well, look, no further. Proudly made in tennessee a safe step walkin top is the best in its class the ultra low easy step helps keep you safe from having to climb over those high walled tubs, allowing you to aid . Its gracefully in the home you love and now backed by popular demand for a limited time when you purchase your brand new safe step walkin tub, youll will receive a three Shower Package . Yes. A brief Shower Package. And if you call today, youll also receive 1,600 off now, you can enjoy the best of both worlds, the therapeutic benefits of a warm, soothing that, that can help increase mobility, relieve pain, boost energy, and even improved sleep. Or if you prefer, you can take a refreshing shower all in one product called now juanita 659 8982 ready to wash this . One second. I got to finish my laundry. Its gross night. One second. I use rents the company that will pick up, wash bold, and deliver your laundry, dry cleaning that touched me button, sign up for remains at rinse. Com to get 20 off your firstorder husband and froing to Hair Thinning is getting older. I was under a lot of stress. I started taking neutral neutrophil is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement. I am back to me. Start your