Judge Cannon sets date to hear Trump’s motion to dismiss docs case: report

07 March 2024

As Donald Trump and Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith await a start date for the former president's classified documents trial, presiding Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday did set a date to hear Trump's motion to dismiss the case — which will take place in exactly one week.

The Guardian's Hugo Lowell reports via X (formerly Twitter), "Just in: Judge Cannon schedules March 14 hearing at 10am ET to address Trump's motion to dismiss classified docs counts 1-32 on unconstitutional vagueness claims and Trump+ [former Trump aide Walt] Nauta motion to dismiss superseding indictment on the Presidential Records Act [PRA]."

Lowell adds, "It will be a non-evidentiary hearing, per notice. Could be that Cannon wants to figure out whether to grant subsequent evidentiary hearings as requested by Trump and opposed by Special Counsel, like what was filed today."

Special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday filed a document slamming Trump's argument that the classified documents were his "personal" records.

In the filing, Smith argues that the MAGA hopeful's "reliance on the PRA as a basis for dismissing the indictment is wrong. The PRA does not exempt Trump from the criminal law, entitle him to unilaterally declare highly classified presidential records to be personal records, or shield him from criminal investigations—let alone allow him to obstruct a federal investigation with impunity."

Furthermore, Politico's Kyle Cheney reported that the special counsel's latest filing is "a remarkable document in which Smith compares Trump's actions to a long list of high-profile people accused of mishandling classified info," including President Joe Biden, former Vice President Mike Pence, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former FBI Director James Comey.

Cheney emphasizes that Smith argues, "In a nutshell, none of them were as brazenly obstructive as Trump."

The former president requested that the trial begins on August 12 — or after the November election — while Smith requested that the trial starts on July 8.

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