Cannon shoots down Trump's presidential records act claim

[sinkingfeeling]

Source: Washington Post

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday rejected Donald Trump’s bid to have his charges of mishandling classified documents dismissed on the grounds that a federal records law protected him from prosecution. The judge also defended her handling of the issue, which had frustrated prosecutors.

Trump’s defense team argued the Presidential Records Act took priority over the Espionage Act when it came to highly classified documents that he took to his private residence in Florida after his presidency. On Thursday, Cannon shot down that argument, saying the PRA “does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss” either the mishandling charges or the related obstruction charges against Trump.

The decision comes two days after special counsel Jack Smith made a court filing saying the judge was pursuing a legal premise about the PRA that was “wrong,” and urged her to rule, adding that if she decided otherwise, he wanted to appeal any such decision quickly.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/04/cannon-trump-jack-smith-presidential-records-act/

[GreenWave]

1. And yet I do not trust her in the long run.

National security is at stake and she farts around.

[agalisgv]

23. Neither do I. nt

[Roy Rolling]

27. A Trojan Horse

The judge’s ruling fails to close a gigantic loophole—the Presidential Records Act. (A civil statute) She likely plans to link the case erroneously [/i with Trump stealing and hiding top-secret government documents that belong in a SCIF.

Jack Smith just set fire to that wooden horse before it gets inside the fort. Watch the rats scurry.

[AllaN01Bear]

2. thank you mr smith. at least loose cannon did something right.

[canetoad]

15. I think she saw

The moving finger of fate scrawling on her wall. Eleventh Circuit.

[live love laugh]

30. They can't risk taking her off the case even if she rules against them she's their best chance.

It was spaghetti that didn’t stick on the wall.

[Novara]

3. Jack Smith put the fear of the 11th circuit in her

Too bad. I was looking forward to the smackdown.

She can still tank the case and will try to do so.

[magicarpet]

8. She will proceed to gum up the works.

Cannon will just be more careful to appear as she is doing her job even handedly. But inevitably she will toss the case to Donald,... even more so now that she has been publicly warned, reprimanded, and humiliated that she is not doing her job in a professional manner.

Cannon seems like the type who would harbor a grudge and lashout in a vindictive way when is suits her purposes.

[Novara]

9. She will tank the entire case when it's too late to appeal, if she can.

[prodigitalson]

13. that is definitely the plan

[aggiesal]

24. If you listen to Andrew Weissmann on MSNBC's Deadline White House ...

Loose Cannon did Smith no favors.

Cannon ruled against Trump's presidential records act claim "for now".
She did not rule against it in total and that she can still rule in favor later,
after the jury has been selected, where Smith can't appeal because of double jeopardy.

But that it was enough for now (there's that phrase again), to keep Smith from going to the 11th Circuit.

I wouldn't trust this judge as far as I can throw her.

[getagrip_already]

4. She wasnt going to outright dismiss the case

That wasn't the fear.

The risk is she would poison the case through biased instructions to the jury basically buying into the arguments. That couldn't be appealed and the case couldn't be retried.

Not dismissing the case is another matter entirely. A dismissal could be appealed.

[orleans]

5. and the subheading:

The ruling may cool a looming standoff between special counsel Jack Smith and the judge

[gab13by13]

6. She accomplished her goal; delay.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. Judge Cannon rejects a bid by Trump to dismiss criminal charges in classified documents case

Hat tip, Joe.My.God.

Judge Rejects Trump’s Bid To Dismiss Docs Charges
April 4, 2024

CNN reports:

{snip}

Judge Cannon rejects a bid by Trump to dismiss criminal charges in classified documents case

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Tierney Sneed and Katelyn Polantz, CNN
1 minute read
Published 3:10 PM EDT, Thu April 4, 2024

{snip}

The order: https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/81d4d3af-04fd-4d8d-9903-5427d55bf1e2.pdf

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. Neal Katyal thinks that Jack Smith may need to appeal to 11th Circuit

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Hermit-The-Prog]

11. Is loose cannon in fact a loose weasel?

Special Counsel did not "demand[] an anticipatory finalization of jury instructions"; Special Counsel demanded to know if the Court's "correct formulation of the law to be issued to the jury" was going to "rest on an unstated and fundamentally flawed legal premise". That's not the same thing, at all.

[ Edit to add link to response: ]
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24529674/sco-response.pdf

[Pachamama]

26. She is really clever and sly

This was a tactic to appear as if giving a win to the Govt - and keep things at bay and still a gift to Trump


I am now convinced she isn’t “green” and inexperienced and therefore doesn’t know what she is doing

She knows EXACTLY what she is doing

[twodogsbarking]

12. A Cannon shot your claim.

[mchill]

14. This is not what it seems

Only shutdown during the pre-trial phase. She wanted to give him a “win” albeit useless, so he wouldn’t take it to 11th circuit. Smith and cannon are at war.

[EndlessWire]

20. That's what I thought.

She makes it pretty clear that this is just pretrial, and it sure seems like the issue is open. I think Jack needs to continue on with it, so she doesn't just get to dismiss the case as a final ruling. She seems like a whacko to me. Jack needs to talk to Judges who aren't in Trump's back pocket.

I think the best temperature gauge is as someone pointed out, that Trump doesn't attack Cannon or her family as he has done to every other Judge who has had him in their Courtrooms. That tells us a lot. This docs case has extreme potential to lock Trump up for basically the rest of his life. If I were him, and thank G-d I'm not, I'd flee to some other country.

I think Bragg is going to eventually get him. He won't like that. I hope the jail stinks of vomit and urine.

[KPN]

21. Exactly. The word "pre-trial" dismissal did not rule out

the PRAs use as grounds to dismiss during the trial. She w/not have used the word “pre-trial” were that the case.

[Orrex]

16. Has he fired her yet?

[ificandream]

17. Link to Cannon's filing via Lawfare.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24531788-pra-mtd-denial

[nakocal]

18. Cannon is lying

She is waiting for the jury to be seated and then will allow the PRA defense. She just said that she could not dismiss the case pre-trial.

[3825-87867]

19. She really didn't give this a lot of thought...

even if trump won, his record shows she wouldn't get squat because he lies.
If she would have simply done her JOB, at least after the election, she'd probably HAVE her respectable job.
Right now, she could be relegated to traffc court.
DumB!

[KPN]

22. She did not answer Smith's question. This is a ruse. She will use

the PRA as grounds for dismissal during the trial. She did not say that the PRA does not provide grounds to dismiss during trial.

[nakocal]

25. Bad headline - She did not shoot down the PRA defense

She just said that they could not use in before a jury is seated and jeopardy is attached. If she dismissed the case now, Smith could refile. She is a corrupt and should be charged as an accessory after the fact.

[DallasNE]

28. The Presidential Records Act

Is not what Trump thinks it is. The link below is the 2014 revised act and it is very specific regarding classified documents (hard copy and electronic) and it spells out that those documents are not to be viewed anywhere but in a secure facility with no means to copy the contents. That would just introduce a different set of charges over the mishandling of the classified documents. It would also leave in place the obstruction charges. The original 1978 act changes the ownership from private to public and sets disclosure rules except it doesn't specifically mention classified documents.

My understanding of the interaction of the various laws is that they all apply to some degree. When there is a conflict between laws then the more general law must give way to the more specific law. Yes, there is another law that helps sort out the variaus conflicts and they all apply to some extent. And none of them condones what Trump did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_and_Federal_Records_Act_Amendments_of_2014

[DallasNE]

29. Has Not The Trial Calender Been Set?

Here Cannon is telling both Trump and Smith that it is too soon to do what either asks for but she fails to set what point would be ripe for their demands. But it seems to me the trial calendar should already spell this out, leaving us with a court management issue. Telling is her dare to Smith to file an appeal knowing that it was also too soon to do that according to court procedures. Quite unprofessional.