The judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents trial is set to hear arguments on whether to dismiss the federal case against the former president.
Judge Aileen Cannon will lead the hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Thursday to consider two motions from Trump's legal team on why the charges filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith should be thrown out.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 charges over allegations he illegally retained sensitive materials when he left the White House in January 2021 and then obstructed the federal attempts to retrieve them.
The arguments Cannon will hear relate to the claim that the Presidential Records Act allowed Trump to keep documents after he left office as they were his personal property. Trump's legal team will also argue that charges Trump faces under the Espionage Act are "unconstitutionally vague" when applied to the former president.
Trump and his legal team have long argued that the classified documents case against him should be dismissed as the Presidential Records Act suggests he was allowed to retain the materials as they were personal materials, not presidential.
The Presidential Records Act, implemented in the wake of the Richard Nixon Watergate scandal, requires that every presidential document must be sent to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) when the president leaves office as the materials in question belong to the government, not the commander-in-chief personally.
In February, Trump's legal team argued that the Republican did not have "unauthorized" possession of the presidential documents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago resort as he had "virtually unreviewable" authority to designate the materials as personal.
Smith's office previously said that Trump's Presidential Record Act argument shows the 77-year-old believes he is above the law as a former president.
"Trump's claims rest on three fundamental errors, all of which reflect his view that, as a former President, the Nation's laws and principles of accountability that govern every other citizen do not apply to him," federal prosecutors wrote.
Trump's legal team are also set to argue to Cannon the Espionage Act is too vaguely written to be used to prosecute the former president.
"There is far too much indeterminacy around the meaning of 'unauthorized possession' with respect to President Trump and the types of documents at issue," his lawyers previously wrote.
Prosecutors said that the statute's prohibitions are "clear," and that Trump as his role as president should have understood the "paramount importance of protecting the Nation's national-security and military secrets, including the obligations not to take unauthorized possession of, or willfully retain, national defense information."
Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump and has faced frequent criticism for her rulings that have arguably benefited the former president, could head future hearings on other motions to dismiss filed by Trump, including that he is subject to presidential immunity.
Cannon is also due to confirm when the classified documents trial will start. She is expected to push it back from its current start state of May 20.
Trump, the confirmed 2024 Republican presidential nominee, argued the trial should not take place until 2025 due to his campaign schedule. Trump's lawyers also suggested a potential August start date, as required by a court order.
Smith's team told Cannon that the trial should take place in July.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
