Court rejects Trump’s lawsuit to overturn classified documents case
Judge Eileen Cannon dismissed one of Donald Trump’s lawsuits to quash a criminal case involving classified documents on Thursday and expressed skepticism during an hours-long hearing in which the former president’s lawyers presented arguments for ending Trump’s prosecution.
District Court Judge Eileen Cannon issued a ruling saying that while Trump’s team made “various arguments worthy of serious consideration,” dismissal of the lawsuit was not warranted. The case involves classified documents that Trump took with him to his Mar-a-Lago estate when he left the White House.
Cannon, who was appointed to the position by the former president, has made clear that she has no intention of dismissing one of the four criminal cases against the Republican Party’s most likely 2024 presidential nominee. She said that dismissing the indictment was “unlikely” and that it would be a “pretty extraordinary” move to revoke the Espionage Act status that underlies most of the criminal charges against Trump.
Cannon’s decision could be called a modest victory for special prosecutor Jack Smith, who, in addition to the classified documents case, is leading a separate investigation into Trump on charges of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Today’s ruling, however, left unanswered questions about when the case could go to trial and addressed only one of two motions heard Thursday. A separate motion on whether Trump is allowed under the Presidential Records Act to retain documents after leaving the White House went unaddressed, but the judge seemed disinclined to dismiss the case on those grounds as well.
“It’s hard to see how that would lead to dismissal of the indictment,” she told Trump’s lawyer.
Trump attended Thursday’s hearing while his attorneys pushed for Cannon to dismiss the case.
This is the second hearing in March in the case in Florida, which was opened by prosecutors in June 2023.
After the hearing, Trump noted on his Truth Social platform the “large crowds” of his supporters gathered outside the courthouse in solidarity with the former president. He again said the prosecution was a “witch hunt” inspired by President Joe Biden.
Some of the arguments presented by the defense Thursday dealt with the Presidential Records Act. The law requires presidential records to be turned over to the National Archives, even though former presidents can keep notes and papers solely for personal reasons.
His lawyers say the act gave him the right to designate as personal property the records he took with him to Mar-a-Lago, and that he was free to do whatever he wanted with the documents.
Prosecutors countered that the records were clearly presidential, not personal, and included top-secret information and documents related to nuclear programs and defense issues of the United States and other countries.
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