Judge Cannon rules in Jack Smith’s favor in latest 9-page classified documents ruling

28 February 2024

Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's team notched its second win in US District Judge Aileen Cannon's courtroom this week.

On Wednesday, Judge Cannon issued a nine-page ruling denying former President Donald Trump's motion to have additional classified documents shown to his lawyers. According to the Washington Post, Cannon ruled that Trump would still be adequately defended by his attorneys in court without them seeing the documents Smith submitted.

"The Court cannot speak with such confidence in this first-ever criminal prosecution of a former United States President—once the country’s chief classification authority over many of the documents the Special Counsel now seeks to withhold from him (and his cleared counsel)—in a case without charges of transmission or delivery of national defense information," Cannon wrote. "As best the Court can discern following its rigorous analysis, Defendants’ rights will not be impaired by today’s ruling."

Cannon's ruling comes on the heels of a separate decision she handed down on Tuesday, in which she agreed with Smith that Trump co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira — Trump's body man and the property manager of Mar-a-Lago, respectively — didn't need to view certain classified materials.

"The Court, following a careful review of the Motions and related filings, concludes that the Special Counsel has carried his burden to withhold from Defendants Nauta and De Oliveira personally all classified discovery produced to date," Cannon's order read. "The Court makes this determination following colloquies with defense counsel concerning their theories of the case and anticipated defenses, and after a thorough review of the underlying classified materials with a view to Defendants’ interests."

Attorneys for both the prosecution and defense are currently in the midst of pre-trial negotiations regarding section 4 of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which governs the handling of classified materials in criminal trials. The length of CIPA discussions means that Cannon's scheduled May 20 trial date will almost certainly be postponed to a later date.

The former president is facing 37 felony counts for allegedly mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Because the case is in the federal judiciary, Trump could theoretically appoint an attorney general who would dismiss the case and all charges should he win the November election.

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