FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A federal judge will hear arguments Thursday on whether to dismiss a classified documents prosecution against Donald Trump, with his lawyers arguing the former president had a right to keep the sensitive data with him when he left the White House for Florida left.
The dispute centers on the Trump team’s interpretation of the Presidential Records Act, which they say gave him the authority to declare the documents personal and keep them after his presidency.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team, on the other hand, says that the files Trump is accused of possessing are presidential documents, not personal documents, and that the statute does not apply to classified and top-secret documents such as those kept at his estate at Mar-a-Lago. in Florida.
The Presidential Records Act “does not absolve Trump from criminal justice, give him the right to unilaterally declare top-secret presidential documents personal, or protect him from criminal investigation — let alone allow him to obstruct a federal investigation with impunity.” , prosecutors wrote. in a lawsuit last week.
It was not clear when U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon would rule, but the outcome will determine whether the case moves forward or, as Trump’s lawyers hope, is dismissed before ever reaching a jury — a rare action a judge can take .
Cannon, whom Trump nominated to the bench, is also expected to hear arguments Thursday on a separate but related motion from the Trump team that says the statute constitutes the bulk of the criminal charges — making it a crime to intentionally withhold national defense information – is unconstitutionally vague because it applies to a former president.
It’s not surprising that attorneys want to dismiss the case under the Presidential Records Act, as the legal team has repeatedly invoked the statute since the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
The law, enacted in 1978, requires presidents to turn over their presidential archives to the U.S. government — specifically the National Archives and Records Administration — for management when they leave office, although they are allowed to retain personal data, including diaries and notes that are purely private. and unprepared for government affairs.
Trump’s lawyers have said he has classified the documents he took to Mar-a-Lago as personal property. According to prosecutors, these documents contain top secret information and documents related to nuclear programs and the military capabilities of the US and foreign adversaries.
Cannon has suggested in the past that she sees Trump’s status as a former president as something that sets him apart from others who have kept classified data.
After the Trump team sued the Justice Department in 2022 to get his data back, Cannon appointed a special master to conduct an independent review of the documents collected during the FBI’s search for Mar-a -Lago. That appointment was later overturned by a federal appeals court.
More recently, while ruling in favor of Smith’s team on a procedural issue, Cannon pointedly described the case as the “first ever criminal prosecution of a former President of the United States — once the nation’s top classification authority about many of the documents prepared by the special prosecutor. is now trying to withhold him (and his counsel) – in a case without allegations of transfer or supply of national defense information.
Trump faces 40 felony charges in Florida, accusing him of deliberately withholding dozens of classified documents and rejecting government demands to return them after leaving the White House. Prosecutors have emphasized in recent court cases the extent of the criminal conduct they say they expect to prove at trial, saying in one case that “there has never been a case in American history where a former official has been guilty committed to behavior remotely similar to Trump’s. ”
For example, they allege that Trump deliberately preserved some of the country’s most sensitive documents — returning only a fraction of them at the request of the National Archives — and then urged his lawyer to hide the data and lie to the FBI by to say no. was in possession for longer. He is also accused of calling in personnel to delete surveillance footage showing boxes of documents being moved around the property.
The hearing is the second this month in the Florida case, one of four prosecutions Trump faces in his bid to reclaim the White House this year. Cannon heard arguments on March 1 about when a trial date should be set, but did not immediately rule. Both sides have proposed summer dates for the trial to begin.