Ex-DOJ Official Shows How Postponing Trump's Docs Trial May Actually Backfire

Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal on Tuesday slammed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s indefinite postponement of the trial of Donald Trump over his classified documents case as “atrocious.”

But the Obama-era Justice Department official said he did see one ray of light.

“The one thing I will say that’s a positive is that if the Supreme Court allows [special counsel] Jack Smith’s other trial of Trump and Jan. 6 to go forward, Judge Cannon’s decision today has now cleared the docket for Trump,” Katyal told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner.

Trump’s hush money trial “will be over in a month or so and then the coast is clear for Donald Trump to be tried for the crimes that he’s alleged to have committed on Jan. 6,” Katyal added.

Wagner asked Katyal about the chances of preemptive GOP presidential nominee Trump’s Jan. 6 federal trial happening before the 2024 election.

“I still think it’s possible,” Katyal replied. “I know that after the Supreme Court oral argument, many observers said it’s going to be tough. But I do think it is very possible and Judge Cannon’s decision today makes it more possible.”

In the federal Jan. 6 case, Trump is accused of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden. That trial was due to begin Mar. 4 but is on hold as the conservative-majority Supreme Court decides on Trump’s claim to total immunity for potential criminal acts committed when in the White House.

Watch Katyal’s full analysis here:

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