The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Trump docs case may be trial-bound
Judge appears skeptical that former president could legally keep records
A federal judge appeared reluctant Thursday to dismiss the classified documents prosecution of Donald Trump after his lawyers argued for hours that the case trampled on the former president's rights.
As Trump looked on in the courtroom, his attorneys pressed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to throw out the case, arguing he was legally entitled to keep the sensitive records he is charged with illegally retaining after he left the White House.
Trump's lawyers say the Presidential Records Act gave him the authority to designate as personal property the records he took with him to his Mar-a-lago estate in Florida. Prosecutors say those included top-secret information and documents related to nuclear programs and the military capabilities of the U.S. and foreign adversaries.
Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, didn't immediately rule, but made it clear through her questions that she was skeptical of the defense effort to scuttle one of four criminal cases against the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Cannon suggested she seemed inclined to have the disputed issues be decided by a jury.
A prosecutor told Cannon that
there are “all sorts of reasons” that Trump's argument is wrong. Prosecutors said the files Trump is charged with possessing are presidential records, not personal ones, and that the statute does not apply to classified and top-secret documents, like those kept at Mar-a-lago.
“The documents charged in the indictment are not personal records. They are not,” said David Harbach, a member of special counsel Jack Smith's team.