Special counsel slams idea that Trump could claim classified docs as personal records

[riversedge]

Source: abc news






Accepting such an argument would be "pure fiction," the special counsel argued.

By Pierre Thomas, Jack Date, and Alexander Mallin
April 3, 2024, 12:11 AM



Special counsel Jack Smith, responding on Tuesday to the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's classified documents case, urged her to reverse course on entertaining the idea that Trump had any personal ownership over the classified materials he has been charged with unlawfully possessing.

In a late-night filing replying to an order last month from Judge Aileen Cannon requesting proposed jury instructions that appeared to accept at face value what legal experts have argued is one of Trump's most fringe defenses -- that the former president had unchecked ability to claim all classified records as his personal property -- Smith argued that accepting such an argument would not only be "pure fiction," but "meritless and fatally undermined" by all the evidence gathered by the government as part of their case.

Among that evidence, according to Smith, are interviews with Trump's own Presidential Records Act representatives and "numerous" high-ranking officials from the White House, none of which "had heard Trump say that he was designating records as personal,"


"To the contrary, every witness who was asked this question had never heard such a thing," Smith's office said.

Smith's office repeatedly urged Cannon that if she continued to entertain such an interpretation of the Presidential Records Act, she "must inform the parties of that decision well in advance of trial" -- suggesting they'd seek relief from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has already overturned her rulings twice in the case................................................

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/special-counsel-files-response-judges-order-trump-documents/story?id=108748626

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[Stargazer99]

1. Claiming the countries files as personal is not even logical

[Novara]

2. NOBODY can designate classified material as personal records

Goddamn Jack Smith for not asking for her recusal. She is tanking the case in front of our eyes. And it's the most easily-proven case!

[tavernier]

8. Smith's motive is to prove the system works

even with a corrupt judge. He will patiently follow all the correct steps ending in her dismissal. Anything short of that will either jeopardize dismissal or be called into question by history. Our judicial system is as much on trial here as Trump and this has to be done without a trace of political stench from the good guys.

[KS Toronado]

18. My thoughts exactly,

Jack Smith is giving her all the rope she needs to lose her Robes.

[trusty elf]

3. Trump claims classified docs are his own personal toilet paper.

[Ray Bruns]

4. She's one more step to getting removed from the case

[Escurumbele]

5. Special Council's most important job right now should be to have Judge Cannon recuse herself from the trial

She must be taken out, one because of her inexperience, and two because she has shown to be biased towards trump, she seems to be wanting to pay a debt to trump for placing her in a place she does not belong.

[303squadron]

6. Joyce Vance has been worried about this for some time

She wrote a few days ago.......

"We discussed this request when the Judge first issued it in this post, all the way down at the bottom. The Judge issued this order in lieu of ruling on Trump’s request to dismiss the case under the Presidential Records Act. Instead, she seems to be telling the parties she’s going to decide it applies, but ask them to give her alternative jury instructions for two different situations, depending on how she decides it applies. In the first scenario, it’s up to the jury to decide whether each classified document was magically morphed into a personal item by Trump before he left the White House. In the second scenario, it’s all up to Trump. If he testifies or somehow adduces evidence at trial he designated the records he’s charged with retaining as personal, no one, not even the jury, can second guess him. Cannon doesn’t say it in her order, but that can only mean the charges would be due to be dismissed.

This is nuts—it’s up to the Judge to decide in the first instance whether the Presidential Records Act applies at all here. Juries resolve factual disputes. It’s up to the Judge to decide what the law says. And there is literally no authority that suggests that the Presidential Records Act somehow means you can’t prosecute someone who mishandles National Defense information. The Judge should have dismissed Trump’s motion out of hand, and if she had granted it, the government could have taken an appeal.

That’s the heart of the problem here, as I’ve discussed before. By kicking the can down the road to trial, she’s setting up a scenario where she could rule in Trump’s favor and dismiss the case after a jury was sworn in. And at that point, the government couldn’t appeal. That’s because of double jeopardy. The government can’t try a defendant twice on the same charges, so if Judge Cannon were to dismiss the case after trial started, the government couldn’t appeal her because they couldn’t retry the case even if they won. "

Smith is trying to force her hand in this ruling and use it for an appeal to the 11th District court!

[NoMoreRepugs]

10. The dismissal scenario seems so simplistic as to be ridiculous to me, or am I just not understanding the strategy nuance

here?

[Irish_Dem]

14. You are missing that all of Trump's strategies are ridiculous.

Juvenile, immature and oppositional.

[303squadron]

17. Welcome to the inner workings of the mind of

Judge loose Cannon!

[Freethinker65]

7. Then why have a Presidential Records Act or anything marked classified?

Each administration's President could remove ALL classified and non-classified documents (including National Security documents, trade negotiation documents, to keep them from future administrations. They could maintain and distribute them as they please, perhaps even destroy them or sell them. There would be no continuity of government.

If so, deny Trump any security briefings now, saying Biden intends, if the country was careless enough to elect Trump, all Government Documents (because currently, by Trump logic, they are his) are Biden's. Biden will keep such information safe and away from Trump until Trump is out of office. Of course this is obviously ridiculous and dangerous, but would be allowed if Cannon rules Trump "owned" everything while in office so was allowed to take everything when he left.

[MissMillie]

11. Precisely

This interpretation of the PRA would render the PRA moot.

[Irish_Dem]

15. Yes every president who leaves office can take all US classified docs with him.

Wipe out the entire cache of top secret material.
Sell them, barter, blackmail with them.

Doesn't sound a like a national security issue does it?

[Emile]

9. This fruitcake Judge needs to be removed from the case.

[oldsoftie]

12. I keep asking trumpers "WHY did he want nuclear secrets SO bad?"

Never get an answer.

[dalton99a]

13. Stupid Trump cultist has no business being a judge

[Irish_Dem]

16. She could not even handle traffic court.

[republianmushroom]

19. Thank you, Jack and team.