In a significant development, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, has rejected former President Donald Trump’s request to dismiss charges in his federal case regarding the alleged mishandling of classified documents. Trump’s legal team argued that he had the authority to retain classified documents and take them to Mar-A-Lago after leaving office in 2021, citing the Presidential Records Act. However, Judge Cannon’s ruling denied this motion while leaving open the possibility for Trump to use the PRA as an argument in his defense.
Furthermore, Judge Cannon’s court order addressed Special Counsel Jack Smith’s response to a previous order regarding jury instructions. Smith had requested a final ruling to allow prosecutors to appeal to the 11th Circuit, but Judge Cannon described this demand as “unprecedented and unjust.”
CNN’s chief legal affairs correspondent, Paula Reid, highlighted the significance of Judge Cannon’s decision, noting that her approach to the case has been scrutinized. Reid emphasized that Judge Cannon still has over a dozen outstanding matters to decide in the case, including eight other motions to dismiss. The delay in resolving these matters could potentially impact the timeline for the case to proceed before November.
This is significant not only because she’s rejecting this effort to dismiss the case, but it’s notable that she is making a decision because her approach to this case has been unusual. It has come under scrutiny. Well, an analysis done by our colleagues Tierney Snead and Hannah Rabinowitz shows that she has over a dozen matters, decisions to still decide outstanding in this case. And of those, eight of them are other motions to dismiss. And the longer it takes her to decide those, the less likely it is that this case will go before November.
