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The federal judge overseeing the prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump on charges of mishandling classified documents denied one of his motions Thursday to dismiss the case, marking his first legal attack on the prosecution. I denied it.
In a two-page order, Judge Eileen M. Cannon echoed Trump’s lawyers’ argument that the Espionage Act, the law at the center of the indictment, is unacceptably vague and should be repealed entirely. rejected.
Judge Cannon’s decision came after a nearly day-long hearing in U.S. District Court in Fort Pierce, Florida, where she represented prosecutors with Trump’s defense team and Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office regarding the Espionage Act. He accepted the argument from the government. The government says the former president violated the law 32 times after he left office, including removing a trove of top-secret classified materials from the White House.
Trump’s lawyers say certain language in the law’s text, such as the provision that prosecutors must prove the defendant “unauthorizedly possessed” documents “related to national defense,” is very vague and controversial. he claimed. Not legally enforceable.
During the hearing, Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Trump near the end of his term, appeared skeptical of attacks on the law. As Mr. Trump and Mr. Smith sat before her on opposite sides of the courtroom, she said that it would be inappropriate for a judge to unilaterally strike down the Espionage Act, the main federal law governing the handling of classified information. He said it was an “unprecedented” measure. material.
In his order, Judge Cannon acknowledged that Mr. Trump’s lawyers had raised “a variety of arguments that warrant serious consideration,” but noted that their concerns about the Espionage Act “are not relevant to jury instruction briefings.” He added that it would be better for the government to make a statement.
Her suggestion that the case could be moving toward resolving the jury issue was the clearest indication yet that it could eventually head to trial. , the date has not yet been decided.
Trump’s lawyers launched a new attack on the case at a hearing in Fort Pierce, designating documents Trump removed from the White House as his personal property under a law known as the Presidential Records Act. he claimed. He is not charged with possessing them without permission.
Judge Cannon also expressed deep reservations about this claim, saying that Mr. Trump is free to claim in court that the documents he was held to actually belong to him, but it is clear that He pointed out that it is “difficult to understand” whether such a case deserves to be rejected. The entire case was over before it went to the jury.
The two motions heard in court Thursday are part of a voluminous submission that Mr. Trump’s lawyers have filed with Judge Cannon in a kind of kitchen sink approach that attacks the prosecution from every conceivable angle. Only. Many lawyers may consider the unthinkable.
Aside from his attacks on the Espionage Act and Presidential Records Act claims, Trump has questioned the legality of Smith’s appointment and claimed, without any evidence, that President Biden personally directed the prosecution against him. ing. It’s a way to sink his 2024 campaign.
Trump also argued that presidential immunity fully protects him from charges, even though he was no longer president when nearly all of the acts cited in the indictment took place.
Taken as a whole, these motions avoid responsibility for holding what prosecutors said are some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets, and the government that brought the case It is an aggressive and often outlandish attempt to question authority. first place.
Mr. Trump’s claims have painted the prosecution from the beginning as illegal and unfair, and as one of Mr. Smith’s senators recently wrote, “As a former president, the law of the land that governs all other citizens… and his view that the principle of responsibility is important. Don’t apply to him. ”
Judge Cannon spent much of the day peppering the defense and prosecutors with detailed questions about key phrases in the Espionage Act and how Trump designated records he acquired as his personal property. However, there was one important topic that she had on the agenda. Don’t tell: The timing of the trial.
Two weeks ago, Judge Cannon held a hearing ostensibly to set a new trial date, but he has not yet issued a ruling.
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