U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon denied former President Donald Trump’s request to dismiss the documents case in a ruling on Thursday.
Trump’s team had argued that the Presidential Records Act takes priority over the Espionage Act when it came to highly classified documents he took to Mar-a-Lago after he left office, but Cannon rejected the request to dismiss the case on those grounds, writing in the filing, “The Presidential Records Act does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss.”
Cannon also defended herself against attacks from Special Counsel Jack Smith, who had harshly criticized a request she gave both parties. He argued that the judge’s request embraced Trump’s view of the Presidential Records Act, allowing him to consider government documents as “personal.”
Smith accused Cannon of a “fundamentally flawed” understanding of the case, and threatened to seek an appeal court review.
Cannon said in her filing that her request should not be “misconstrued as declaring a final definition on any essential element or asserted defense in this case.”
She wrote that it was “a genuine attempt, in the context of the upcoming trial, to better understand the parties’ competing positions and the questions to be submitted to the jury in this complex case of first impression.”
Smith has charged Trump with more than 40 counts for allegedly retaining classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office, and alleged obstruction of justice over allegedly trying to conceal the records after authorities sought their return.
This is a breaking news story.
