U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday is expected to hear from special counsel Jack Smith’s team and Donald Trump’s attorneys on the former president’s motions to dismiss his classified documents case.
Cannon set a hearing for Thursday to discuss Trump’s motions to dismiss the case, citing the Presidential Records Act and “unconstitutional vagueness.”
“I've handled a lot of motions in criminal cases. These are barely better than frivolous,” tweeted former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Presidential Records Act allows him to designate documents as personal records.
“But he's never been able to explain how the PRA trumps laws about handling classified & national defense info. It doesn't,” Vance wrote. “Even if, by some stretch of the imagination, a president can hang onto classified information by claiming its personal records, Trump's still obstructed justice according to multiple first-hand witnesses.”
Vance added that with any other judge, the motions would certainly be dismissed. “But with Judge Cannon, we just have to wait and see how she’ll rule,” she said.
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin argued on Thursday that the Presidential Records Act “doesn’t support the interpretation and almost the perversion that Donald Trump is trying to give it.”
Not only did Trump take sensitive documents but he also “deluded his own lawyers by having the boxes moved,” she said, predicting his motion will not “hold up.”
Cannon, who has been criticized for repeated rulings favoring Trump, earlier this month heard both sides’ proposals for a new trial date as the case has been delayed by pre-trial squabbles but she has yet to issue a new date.
"She has yet to issue a scheduling order setting a trial date. In the meantime, she's hearing argument today on two motions to dismiss,” Rubin said. “I'm not a betting person, probably would make a miserable one, but the fact she set oral arguments on two motions to dismiss makes me think maybe she thinks she can get rid of this case without setting a trial date. That is frightening, given the gravity of the charges here and the evidence that supports those charges."
Former federal prosecutor Donya Perry told CNN that she was surprised Cannon even called a hearing on these motions.
Cannon is "giving a lot of deference to the former president and his legal team" that is "a lot more than a lot of people think is merited, or that a lot of other judges would give in this situation,” she said.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough noted that Cannon’s previous orders have been “absolutely excoriated by the 11th Circuit” of Appeals.
"She can rule what she rules, but no court will uphold a preposterous argument," Scarborough said.
