On Thursday, Judge Aileen Cannon threw out Trump’s motion to dismiss the classified documents case based on the Presidential Records Act.
In February, Trump’s legal team submitted multiple motions seeking to dismiss the classified documents case brought by Jack Smith.
Cannon has now rejected two of Trump’s attempts to dismiss Jack Smith’s legal case, which is unfolding in a federal court in Florida.
“The Superseding Indictment specifies the nature of the accusations against Defendant Trump in a lengthy speaking indictment with embedded excerpts from investigative interviews, photographs, and other content,” Cannon wrote in her brief order on Thursday. “Accepting the allegations of the Superseding Indictment as true, the Presidential Records Act does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss.”
Separately, Judge Cannon rejected Jack Smith’s requests regarding her jury instruction order as “unprecedented and unjust.”
“Separately, to the extent the Special Counsel demands an anticipatory finalization of jury instructions prior to trial, prior to a charge conference, and prior to the presentation of trial defenses and evidence, the Court declines that demand as unprecedented and unjust,” Cannon wrote.
“The Court’s Order soliciting preliminary draft instructions on certain counts should not be misconstrued as declaring a final definition on any essential element or asserted defense in this case,” she continued.
“Nor should it be interpreted as anything other than what it was: a genuine attempt, in the questions to be submitted to the jury in this complex case of first impression,” she added.
Last month, Judge Cannon rejected Trump’s attempt to dismiss the classified documents case, arguing that it was based on the vagueness of the Espionage Act.
A third motion, centered on the concept of selective prosecution, is still awaiting a decision.
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