Judge Rejects Trump Bid to Toss Classified Documents Case
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case on Thursday rejected his bid to dismiss the case based on the Presidential Records Act.
In a court filing last month, attorneys representing the former president argued that the more than 300 classified documents recovered during a raid on his Palm Beach County, Florida, home should be considered his personal records.
And U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, irked many trial observers when she appeared to give the argument some credence, when she asked the defense and prosecutors to weigh competing jury instructions that would advise jurors on the matter.
The Presidential Records Act requires presidents to return official records at the end of their term, but allows them to keep personal records, such as personal journals, that are not directly connected to their official duties as president.
The problem, from the prosecution’s point of view, is that Trump was slapped with a 40-count indictment that includes 32 alleged violations of a national security law known as the Espionage Act, which makes it illegal to mishandle national defense information.
Earlier this week, special counsel Jack Smith called the idea that Trump could consider such records to be his personal property “pure fiction.”
“It would be pure fiction to suggest that highly classified documents created by members of the intelligence community and military and presented to the president of the United States during his term in office were ‘purely private,’” he said.
On Thursday, Cannon, who has been widely criticized for seeming to favor Trump in the case, handed Smith something of a win, finding that the charges the former president wants dismissed “make no reference to the Presidential Records Act, nor do they rely on that statute for purposes of stating an offense.”
Therefore, “the Presidential Records Act does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss,” she said.
The ruling Thursday is the second time in as many months that the judge has denied one of Trump’s motions to drop the case.
Last month, she spurned an argument that the statute underpinning the bulk of the charges was unconstitutionally vague and therefore required the dismissal of the indictment.
Cannon has yet to rule on other Trump efforts to dismiss the case, including arguments that presidential immunity shields him from prosecution and that he has been subject to “selective and vindictive prosecution.”
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
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