Legal Expert: Trump’s Attempts to Block Special Counsel Report Are ‘Legally Groundless’
Donald Trump Campaigns For President In Wisconsin (Photo Credit: by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Legal analysts are closely watching for any last-minute maneuvers by President-elect Donald Trump and his legal team to delay the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on the 2020 election. However, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig dismissed Trump’s chances of successfully blocking the report, calling such efforts legally groundless.
“First of all, Donald Trump and his co-defendants have zero – zero legal basis – to block this report from coming out,” Honig, a former federal prosecutor, stated during an interview with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer on Monday.
The report, which could provide new details about Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, is expected to be released as early as Tuesday morning. Honig speculated on Trump’s possible legal strategy as the clock ticks down.
“What we’re watching for in the next five and change hours is will Donald Trump’s team take that last Hail Mary?” Honig said. “Will they ask the court of appeals to block this? Will they ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block this?”
Honig emphasized that Trump’s efforts to stop the report have been consistently unsuccessful. The Department of Justice has signaled its intent to release the document, and legal requirements compel the special counsel to submit the report publicly.
“The ruling that we got earlier today from Judge Cannon in Florida, who’s generally been very favorable to Donald Trump, said he has no basis to block this – especially because he’s no longer a criminal defendant,” Honig explained. He pointed out that since Trump has been dismissed from the case, he cannot invoke constitutional arguments related to jury impartiality.
“So the arguments we’ve been seeing, Wolf, are really Hail Marys,” Honig added. “We’ll see if they try again between now and midnight, but legally they’ve got nothing.” Even if Trump’s legal team seeks intervention from the Supreme Court, Honig predicted that any delay would be “very, very brief.”
“I do think we’ll see this soon,” Honig said, expressing confidence that the report’s release is imminent. “I do not think Donald Trump’s team is going to be able to run out the clock until he’s president next week.”
As the release nears, the focus remains on whether Trump’s team will attempt any last-ditch legal actions, even as experts argue that such efforts are unlikely to succeed.
