'Fool's errand': Ex-Trump lawyer says jury won't buy docs case with no 'big fish'

As special counsel Jack Smith asks for federal cases against Donald Trump to be dismissed ahead of Trump retaking the presidency and assuming immunity at the federal level, he has conspicuously not moved to stop litigating the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case against Trump's accused co-conspirators, Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira.

But that might not matter, former Trump payroll attorney William Brennan told CNN's Erica Hill on Monday — because even if the DOJ overturns the blanket dismissal of the case ordered by Judge Aileen Cannon and even if the case somehow proceeds to trial without the Trump administration shutting them down, there's a gaping hole in it that will be hard for juries to accept.

"Bill, I'm curious," said Hill. "We talked about this briefly ... but the fact that the two co-defendants in the classified documents case, the — Jack Smith is not dropping the case there. How do you expect that to play out in the early days of the Trump administration? What do you expect the Trump Justice Department to do with that?"

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"Well if the case proceeds — I mean, it would seem to me that the jurors would be scratching their heads wondering, 'Why?'" said Brennan. "I mean, I'm sure they can put two and two together, but they've got to scratch their heads and wonder why the main defendant is not there. I mean, it seems to me that it's a fool's errand to pursue the minnows when, you know, the big fish is gone."

Ultimately, added Brennan, "I agree" with the statement made earlier in the segment by never-Trump Republican and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

"You know, whether you like the results of the election or you don't, President Trump, for the first time in a generation, won not only the Electoral College, but he won the popular vote. And we really need to move on," said Brennan. "And I think that this decision by Mr. Smith — I think he had to do it. But I think it's the right thing to do. And I think that, you know, a year from now this will just be in the rearview mirror. And I don't think there'll be lasting effects from this dismissal."

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