CNN’s Paula Reid Reports Trump Lawyers Are Being ‘Pretty Dramatic’ in Hearing with Judge Chutkan: Playing to an ‘Audience of One’

CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid reported on the latest developments in Judge Tanya Chutkan’s courtroom Thursday, noting that attorneys representing former President Donald Trump defending him in the election interference case are playing to an “audience of one,” being “pretty dramatic” in some of their in-court arguments that do not match what they put in their legal filings.

Thursday morning marked the first hearing in Trump’s election interference case since the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling, and the ex-president’s legal team brought several arguments attempting to get the case dismissed or delayed. Chutkan knocked down several of these, telling Trump’s lawyers that challenges to Jack Smith’s appointment as Special Counsel should have been brought earlier, that she didn’t find Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling in Florida to be binding, finding unpersuasive their arguments that Smith’s superseding indictment was a totally new indictment that warranted additional time to prepare, and dismissing arguments that the November election was cause for delay.

On CNN Newsroom , Reid gave updates on the hearing to anchor Jim Acosta . Cameras are not allowed in federal courtrooms, so CNN has reporters inside to provide live updates throughout the proceedings.

Acosta characterized the hearing so far as “a pretty lively exchange between Judge Chutkan and Trump’s attorneys.”

“Yeah, it’s getting a little spicy in there, Jim,” she said. The Trump team was “being pretty dramatic, and we know that sometimes the defense attorneys — they need to play to an audience of one — and I say they’re dramatic because some of the things that they’re saying in court right now, just do not match what are in their filings.”

As one example, Reid pointed out that in the joint filing between the defense counsel and prosecutors, “they don’t agree on everything when it comes to scheduling, but they’re also not that far apart,” however, in this hearing, Trump’s attorney “got up and said he could not imagine a more unfair protocol than what the Special Counsel is suggesting going forward.”

Watch the clip above via CNN .