A wooden gavel and block is seen inside the Senate Hart Building in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
The federal judge overseeing Trump’s criminal trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents ruled Wednesday against his lawyers’ bid to see more of the classified filings prosecutors have submitted - concluding that the access Trump’s team sought was not typically granted in such cases, and that withholding the information would not hamper his ability to defend himself.
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen M. Cannon issued a nine-page order rejecting Trump’s arguments for his lawyers to see prosecutors’ filings under Section 4 of the Classified Information Procedures Act, a law designed to shield national security secrets at issue in criminal trials.
In her ruling, Cannon noted the unusual facts of this particular case, and suggested the special counsel, Jack Smith, may be overstating the law when he argued the prosecutors’ filings cannot be shared with the defense.
“The Court cannot speak with such confidence in this first-ever criminal prosecution of a former United States President-once the country’s chief classification authority over many of the documents the Special Counsel now seeks to withhold from him (and his cleared counsel)-in a case without charges of transmission or delivery of national defense information,” Cannon wrote. She said she read the law differently, to mean that judges have discretion to make that decision themselves.
Nevertheless, Cannon said, after reviewing case precedents, sealed hearings, and the filings in question, she concluded Trump’s lawyers do not need to review those government filings to defend their client.
“As best the Court can discern following its rigorous analysis, Defendants’ rights will not be impaired by today’s ruling,” she said.
The ruling follows a similar judgment Cannon issued Tuesday, in which she ruled against separate requests by lawyers for Trump’s co-defendants, Waltine “Walt” Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, to have access to some of the classified information.
