A federal judge in South Florida partially spurned former President Donald Trump’s bid Thursday to toss out the criminal charges against him for his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump-appointed US District Judge Aileen Cannon concluded that the 45th president’s team wanted her to decide “prematurely” on their claim that special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment charging Trump, 77, with wilfull retention of national defense information was unconstitutionally vague.
“The Motion raises various arguments warranting serious consideration,” she wrote in a two-page decision. “Resolution of the overall question presented depends too greatly on contested instructional questions about still-fluctuating definitions of statutory terms/phrases as charged, along with at least some disputed factual issues.”
Cannon’s denial was without prejudice, which means that Trump could theoretically try to get the case tossed out again at a later date. The judge also suggested that the Trump team’s concerns could be addressed with jury instructions “and/or other appropriate motions.”
Cannon had signaled unease about the motion during a morning hearing, and did not issue a ruling on a separate bid by the Trump team to dismiss the case under the Presidential Records Act.
President Biden evaded charges last month despite special counsel Robert Hur’s finding that he had “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials,” though Hur insisted to Congress Tuesday that he “did not exonerate” the commander-in-chief in a scathing 388-page report on the matter.
Defense attorney Emil Bove argued in Fort Pierce federal court the decision not to charge Biden was proof of “selective” enforcement of national security laws.
“The court’s obligation is to strike the statute and say ‘Congress, get it right,’” Bove said at one point.
Cannon emphasized to prosecutors that no president has ever been charged with violating the law but admitted throwing the case out, as the defense demanded, would be “quite an extraordinary step.”
Assistant special counsel Jay Bratt argued that no case was “remotely similar” to the Trump indictment, which includes more than 30 counts related to alleged retention of sensitive defense material and other charges of obstructing justice.
Cannon had previously pointed out to prosecutors that the case was the “first-ever criminal prosecution of a former United States President — once the country’s chief classification authority over many of the documents the Special Counsel now seeks to withhold from him (and his cleared counsel) — in a case without charges of transmission or delivery of national defense information.”
Trump allegedly withheld more than 100 classified documents from the National Archives after leaving office and misled his attorneys and federal authorities who sought them.
The former president enlisted his valet Waltine Nauta and a property manager at Mar-a-Lago, Carlos De Oliveira, to conceal boxes containing the sensitive files and asked for security footage of their actions to be erased.
The FBI later seized the files from the Palm Beach residence on Aug 8, 2022, and Nauta and De Oliveira have been charged as co-defendants in the case.
Trump’s lawyers have also argued the Presidential Records Act of 1978 gave their client the authority to designate the documents he took when he left office as his personal property.
Prosecutors disputed that in a court filing last week, saying the law “does not exempt Trump from the criminal law, entitle him to unilaterally declare highly classified presidential records to be personal records, or shield him from criminal investigations — let alone allow him to obstruct a federal investigation with impunity.”
Trump arrived in his motorcade a little before 10 a.m. and was observed in the courtroom clasping his hands but refusing to acknowledge Smith.
Presidents are permitted to keep personal papers after departing the White House, such as notes or diaries, but not official records, which are assumed by the Archives under the Presidential Records Act.
Trump is facing 91 criminal counts across four cases in Florida, Georgia, Washington, DC, and Manhattan, with his trial in the last jurisdiction scheduled for March 25.
That case involves the alleged concealment of “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, while prosecutors in Atlanta and DC charge Trump with interfering in the 2020 presidential election to try to remain in office after his defeat.
Both Smith’s team and Trump’s attorneys have proposed summer dates for the classified documents trial to begin.
With Post wires.
