Trump moves to throw out feds’ classified documents case, claiming presidential immunity
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump have added a little spice to his plodding classified documents case in South Florida by moving to throw out a 42-count indictment on the basis of claims of presidential immunity and other legal issues.
His lawyers filed motions late Thursday seeking to dismiss the indictment in a historic case that has mostly centered on secret discussions with
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon over national security materials before the May 20 trial in federal court in the Fort Pierce.
Trump, who was initially arraigned in federal court in Miami in June, is accused of withholding highly sensitive military, defense and security documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach from the U.S. government and conspiring with two assistants to obstruct official efforts to retrieve them.
His lawyer’s motions are considered standard operating procedure in all criminal cases, where such defense strategies are almost always rejected. The issue over Trump’s immunity claim has been addressed in his Jan. 6, 2021, election interference case by an appeals court in Washington, D.C. In early February, a three-judge panel rejected his claim that he was immune from prosecution on charges of plotting to subvert the results of his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden — a decision that is expected to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the classified documents case, Trump’s lawyers argue that he is “immune from prosecution ... because the charges turn on his alleged decision to designate records as personal under the Presidential Records Act and to cause the records to be moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.
“As alleged in the superseding indictment, President Trump made this decision while he was still in office,” their motion states. “The alleged decision was an official act, and as such is subject to presidential immunity.”
Trump’s lawyers have urged Cannon to hold a hearing on this matter and other dismissal motions, including the “unlawful appointment” of a special counsel who is prosecuting Trump. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith, a career prosecutor, as the special counsel in November
2022.
Trump’s lawyers argued that Garland appointed Smith unlawfully “without Senate confirmation.” In a court filing, they said
Smith was appointed as “a private citizen and likeminded political ally to wield the prosecutorial power of the United States. As such, Jack Smith lacks the authority to prosecute this action.”
Attorneys on Smith’s team are expected to urge Cannon to reject Trump’s dismissal motions, saying the former president had no legal right to retain the classified records at his Palm Beach estate as he refused to turn them over to federal authorities for storage by the National Archives and Records Administration.
Cannon was nominated by Trump and joined the federal bench in South Florida at the end of his term in 2020.