United States – The judge in a federal court who presides over a criminal case in which Donald Trump is accused seems to be open to the defense argument that the former US president is innocent, which could present prosecutors with a huge task ahead.
Judge Open to Defense Argument
US District Judge Aileen Cannon, nominated by Trump to the bench, has directed each side to propose jury instructions based on two legal scenarios that chief national defense attorneys stated were potentially questionable regarding the charges, as reported by Reuters.
The two parties involved in the case, Trump and Special Counsel Jack Smith, have to respond to the judge’s directives by the Tuesday deadline.
Contention Over Records
The Supreme Court divided Cannon’s motion, without ruling, to certify the records, which only affirms Trump’s legal positions on the highly classified records that he took to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida when he left the White House in 2021.
As Trump has often had his cases fought out in courtroom battles with many judges, Cannon displays a level of receptiveness to Trump’s defense that could well alter the very course of the document case.
“You have a court who is more favorable to the views of one party versus the other, and you’re seeing orders and decisions that are reflective of that,” said Brandon Van Grack, a former Justice Department national security official.
On the other hand, Trump contends not guilty on charges based on allegations that he kept national defense-related secret records and obstructed the US government’s efforts to recover them.
The prosecutor’s main aim is to replace Joe Biden as a Democratic candidate in the coming elections. The case results have been interpreted as part of a wider effort to discredit Trump’s campaign politically.
To be specific, Cannon’s latest judgment revolves around Trump’s declaration that the papers were non-governmental in nature and so subject to protection under a 1978 law that permits former presidents to shield their records that have no connection to their public duties.
Trump’s attorneys hold his view that he regarded these records as his personal property as a basis of their argument states.
Prosecutors are imposing that the records should not be considered as personal as they are related to US intelligence and military matters. A records law, as shown, has nothing to provide Trump with classified materials, they said.
While Cannon did express some doubts at a March 14 hearing that Trump’s purported claim was needed for the case to be dropped, he added that it may prove “helpful” at the subsequent trial.
In the next move, she proposed competing jury instructions, a position that could be a point of contention: either the government would have to prove records belong to them or neither the judge nor the jury can question Trump’s claims that they are his personal documents.
“Both of them are completely irrelevant,” Kel McClanahan, a national security lawyer who has represented members of the US intelligence community, said of the competing scenarios. “And both actually favor the defendant.”
Mark Zaid, a defense lawyer who has worked on several cases involving classified information, said he knew of no instance when a document produced by the federal agency was declared a personal record by a president.
Allowing a jury to consider those claims would “give Trump a fighting chance in a jury trial that would never likely exist in another case,” Zaid said.
Trial Proceedings
No date for the trial has been identified yet. The judge still hasn’t decided on Trump’s or the prosecutors’ motion to postpone the trial, which is scheduled to go to court in May, to a later date.
Cannon has not borne the brunt of the attacks Trump has launched at judges overseeing his other cases; for example, he has made absurd accusations of biases and has called them names.
Cannon, being controlled by Trump, favored him with a legal filing to block the investigation before charges were brought, which was later reversed by an appeals court.
She has expressed her approval of some of Trump’s arguments, like his plea for more documents from the Biden administration to try and compile a case that the investigation wasn’t involving politics, as reported by Reuters.
Continuing Legal Battles
Trump’s defense suffered a small victory as Cannon rejected an attempt to nullify the most important charge against him – willfully retaining classified material. Cannon suggests that the point can be raised later, however, and he believes there are arguments which are worth considering.