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Jimmy Williams
On Monday, a federal judge rejected former President Donald Trump’s attempt to dismiss his classified documents case. However, the judge agreed to remove a paragraph from the federal superseding indictment.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon denied efforts by Trump and his co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos DeOliveira, to dismiss the obstruction and false statement counts. Despite this, she found that special counsel Jack Smith’s office could not include allegations regarding Trump allegedly showing a classified map to a “PAC Representative,” identified by many reports as Susie Wiles.
Trump and his co-defendants had argued that several allegations were prejudicial. Judge Cannon agreed, stating that “much of the language in the Superseding Indictment is legally unnecessary.” She noted the risks of including extensive narratives in high-profile cases but ultimately decided to strike only paragraph 36, which described the map incident.
Cannon found that the paragraph’s main purpose was to highlight a prior bad act of Trump, indicating that such evidence should be litigated separately with proper notice to the defendant.
A campaign spokesperson and an attorney for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday night.
The main focus of the case is the allegation that Trump willfully retained national defense information. This involves classified documents found at his Florida estate after he left office and claims that he ordered a Mar-a-Lago staffer to delete security video at the property. Trump has pleaded not guilty to these charges, and the trial has been indefinitely postponed.
Trump’s legal team also filed a separate motion on Monday to dismiss the classified documents case. They argued that the charges should be dropped because FBI agents did not preserve the original order of the documents found in Trump’s boxes. They claimed this destroyed “exculpatory evidence” that could support Trump’s defense.
“The Special Counsel’s Office has wrongfully alleged that President Trump was aware of the contents of boxes in August 2022, where those boxes were packed by others in the White House and moved to Florida in January 2021,” wrote defense attorneys Todd Blanche, Chris Kise, and Emil Bove. They argued that the mixing of classified documents with Trump’s personal effects suggested he lacked knowledge and intent regarding the documents.
The special counsel’s office declined to comment on Trump’s motion. However, in a statement included in the filing, the special counsel’s office said Trump had “failed to provide factual or legal support for a spoliation claim under controlling Eleventh Circuit and Supreme Court caselaw. The Government has met and exceeded its discovery and other legal obligations. The defendant’s misconduct allegations are, once again, false.”
In a previous court filing, the special counsel’s office detailed the search procedures at Mar-a-Lago. An initial “filter team” ensured no documents were moved between boxes, though they did not maintain the sequence of documents within each box. If classified documents were found, they were removed, segregated, and replaced with placeholder sheets.
Investigators seized any box containing classified documents or presidential records, according to the filing.
This latest development in Trump’s legal battles underscores the complexities and ongoing challenges surrounding the classified documents case. As the case proceeds, both sides continue to prepare for further legal battles.
