Donald Trump’s legal team pulled a “stunningly stupid” move while arguing for a delay to the start of the former president’s federal election conspiracy trial, said a retired judge.
On Monday, former California Superior Court Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the March 4 start date announced by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan hours earlier was “absolutely fair” and “reasonable.”
What was ridiculous, though, she said, was “when Trump’s attorney compared their desire to delay the case to what happened in the case of Powell v. Alabama,” a 1930s case in which the conviction of nine Black youths for allegedly raping two white women was overturned by the Supreme Court because they weren’t given reasonable time to prepare their defense.
“What the Trump team did was say that, ‘Well, what happened in that trial is what could happen here in this trial,’ which is absolutely absurd,” Cordell continued.
Trump has “experienced lawyers, a whole team of investigators” but it was “stunningly stupid” and a surefire way to “alienate” the judge, she suggested.
“A female judge, a Black judge, and to talk about that case and compare it to Trump’s case was absurd,” added Cordell.
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