‘Girl, Stay in Your Lane’: MSNBC Legal Analyst Admonishes Judge Cannon Ahead of Key Ruling in Trump Documents Case

MSNBC legal analyst Melissa Murray had pointed words for U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Friday, hours after the judge held a hearing on the legality of Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel.

Smith is prosecuting Trump in Washington, D.C. over the former president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and in Florida over Trump’s retention of government documents after leaving office. The ex-president has pleaded not guilty to all counts in both cases – the latter of which Cannon is presiding over in the U.S. Southern District of Florida.

Trump appointed Cannon to the federal bench in 2020 and she has made several head-scratching decisions in the case. Some legal experts have chalked it up to her relative inexperience, but many of them have indicated that the judge is slow-walking the case to prevent it from going to trial before the election. Cannon has even gone so far as to postpone the trial’s start date.

Murray joined Friday’s edition of All In , where host Chris Hayes noted that though a federal criminal case involving a former president is unprecedented, the constitutionality of a special counsel is well established.

“Obviously, this case does present interesting issues and it is somewhat unprecedented,” the host said. “So, it’s not like, ‘Oh, this is all by the book.’ But this particular claim – the special counsel is unconstitutional – for a district judge operating under Supreme Court precedent, Melissa, like, it should be pretty straightforward, right?”

“Girl, stay in your lane,” Murray replied. “Stay. In. Your. Lane. So, yes, not only has the issue of whether the special counsel comports with the structures of constitutional law, that’s been settled. That’s been addressed in multiple courts. Settled. We don’t have to rehash that… If this were an actual issue it would ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court, not by a district court judge in Fort Pierce, Florida.”

As the New York Times noted before Friday’s hearing, “Such defense motions are routinely denied in federal cases involving special counsels.”

Watch above via MSNBC.