US prosecutors fight with judge over order in Trump secret documents case

US prosecutors involved in criminal prosecution donald trump Florida residents questioned the judge’s order, which risked tilting the case in favor of the former US president.

Their 24-page filing was published late Tuesday. ongoing incident We are investigating President Trump’s response. confidential document After leaving the company.

In the filing, the special prosecutor said: jack smith And the prosecution team criticized Judge Eileen Cannon for ordering the final jury to receive instructions suggesting that Trump may have kept classified documents as part of his “personal” record-keeping.

The judge’s order appeared to focus on the defense’s argument that the Presidential Records Act (PRA) gives President Trump the right to preserve classified government documents, but Smith He and his team disputed this.

“That legal premise is flawed,” Smith and others wrote, adding that jury instructions to that effect would “distort the trial.”

The court filing was an unusual display of public discord between prosecutors and judges appointed to the court by President Trump.

Questions for the judge

Judge Cannon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has previously faced intense scrutiny over decisions he made in long-running classified documents cases.

For example, in September 2022, she allowed Trump’s defense team has requested that a “special master” be appointed to sift through classified documents recovered from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.

Legal experts decried the move as unprecedented, Late The US Department of Justice was denied complete access to the documents as part of the investigation.Ann court of appeals I have finally finished my review of the special master.

Meanwhile, in a court filing Tuesday, Special Counsel Smith and his team said Judge Cannon’s order not only colors future jurors’ knowledge of the facts, but also significantly slows the progress of the case. He argued that it would be.

No trial date has been set in the confidential documents case. It was the first time that Trump faced federal criminal charges as a result of Smith’s investigation.

“No matter what the court decides, it must resolve these important legal issues promptly,” Smith and his colleagues wrote. “Failure to do so would unfairly jeopardize the government’s right to a fair trial.”

Suspected withholding documents

The lawsuit began in 2021, shortly after President Trump left office in January of the same year. According to the indictment, the National Archives and Records Administration attempted to recover classified documents believed to belong to the former president.

However, Trump and his allies reportedly refused to return the documents. try to hide They were kept in unsecured locations, including bathrooms and shower areas inside the Mar-a-Lago mansion.

In March 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched a criminal investigation into the matter, and a grand jury issued a subpoena to President Trump demanding the return of all classified records.

Special Counsel Smith, appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice in November of that year, accused President Trump of obstructing subpoenas and other efforts to recover documents containing national security secrets.

The government ultimately recovered more than 300 classified documents from the Mar-a-Lago resort, where dozens of public events were held.

President Trump faces 40 felony charges related to the classified documents scandal.His aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago employees carlos de oliveira was also charged.

multiple legal battles

However, the former president has consistently denied wrongdoing. pleaded not guilty. As part of his defense, he claimed he had declassified the documents before he left office, but audio recordings have since surfaced showing him otherwise.

“As president, I could have declassified it, but I can’t do that now,” Trump said in a 2021 audio.

Trump’s lawyers have also raised the question of whether these documents fall under the purview of “personal” records under the Presidential Records Act.

But in a court filing Tuesday, Smith and his fellow prosecutors sought to shoot down that argument.

“President Trump has never indicated to this court that he has in fact designated classified documents as personal,” they wrote. “The reason is simple: He would never do that.”

Smith and his team also argued that Trump sought to make his actions “immune” to judicial review by invoking the Presidential Records Act.

“It is pure fiction to suggest that highly classified documents prepared by members of the intelligence community or the military and submitted to the President of the United States during his term of office are ‘purely private,'” the court filing said. The document states sharply. text section.

Trump is the subject of four separate criminal indictments, including a classified documents case. But he claims all four are the product of a politically motivated “witch hunt” aimed at derailing his re-election bid in November.

The first case scheduled to go to trial is a New York state-level case involving alleged hush money payments during the 2016 presidential election. It is scheduled to start on April 15th.

On Wednesday, a New York judge rejected President Trump’s attempt to further delay the trial.