By Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer and Terry Spencer —
The Associated Press
Donald Trump's lawyers urged a federal judge on Thursday to dismiss the case against the former president for his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, arguing that the statute underpinning most of the charges is vague from the standpoint of constitutional view.
In silence, Trump watched in the courtroom as District Judge Aileen Cannon listened to arguments on whether the case should proceed or, as the former president's lawyers are asking, be dismissed before it goes to trial, which would be an extraordinary move for anyone. magistrate.
[The 37 charges against Trump in the case: they accuse him of taking papers with military secrets and showing them to other people]
Cannon asked many questions of both sides and did not immediately comment on Trump's request to dismiss the case, where the presumptive Republican presidential candidate in the 2024 elections is accused of storing classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago residence after leave office, in 2020.
Boxes of classified documents stored in a bathroom at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, Palm Beach, Florida.Boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Trump in Palm Beach, Florida.
/ Department of Justice via AP
The judge told a Trump lawyer that striking down a statute — as the defense seeks — would be “a pretty extraordinary decision.”
But she also pointed out to a prosecutor that no former president has ever been accused of mishandling classified documents.
Jay Bratt, one of the members of special prosecutor Jack Smith's team, responded to the judge that there has never been another situation “remotely similar to this.”
What is Trump accused of?
The accusation against Trump claims that he intentionally withheld some of the most sensitive documents in the United States, and that he returned only a portion of them to the Government, at the request of the National Archives.
Prosecutors have stated that Trump asked his lawyer to hide documents and lie to the FBI, saying he no longer had them in his possession.
He is also accused of asking his staff to delete surveillance recordings that showed boxes of documents being moved onto the property.
What Trump's lawyers are challenging is a law that makes it a crime for an unauthorized person to knowingly withhold national defense information.
This forms the basis of 32 of the 40 felonies charged against Trump in the case.
Defense attorney Emil Bove said the law's ambiguity allows for what he called “selective” enforcement by the Justice Department against Trump, but allows others to avoid prosecution.
Bove added that that includes President Joe Biden, who was also the subject of a harshly critical report by special counsel Robert Hur about the president's handling of classified information.
“The court's obligation is to strike down the law and demand that 'Congress, write it right,'” Bove told Cannon.
Bratt disputed that the statute was unclear.
Trump listens to the arguments in silence
Trump sat at the defense table in the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce with his hands clasped, listening intently to the arguments.
Smith, who prosecuted the case, was also in the room, but there was no visible interaction between the two men.
Later Thursday, Cannon was expected to hear arguments on another motion to dismiss the case that centers on the Presidential Records Act.
Trump's lawyers say that statute gave him the authority to designate the documents as personal and maintain possession of them after he is president.
Smith's team has said that the files Trump is accused of possessing are presidential records, not personal ones, and that the statute does not apply to classified and Top Secret documents, such as those kept at Mar-a-Lago.
The Presidential Records Act “does not exempt Trump from criminal law, does not give him the right to unilaterally declare that highly classified presidential files are personal files, does not protect him from criminal investigations,
much less allows him to obstruct a federal investigation with impunity.” "
prosecutors wrote in a court filing last week.
It is not surprising that defense attorneys are asking for a stay of the case based on the Presidential Records Act, given that the legal team has repeatedly invoked this law since the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 .
What can a former president take home and what can't?
The law, enacted in 1978, requires presidents to transfer their presidential records to the U.S. government for management — specifically, the National Archives and Records Administration — upon leaving office, although they are permitted to retain records personal, including diaries and notes that are purely private and not prepared for government business.
Trump's lawyers have said he designated as personal property the records he brought with him to Mar-a-Lago, which prosecutors say included
Top Secret
information and documents related to nuclear programs and the military capabilities of the United States and foreign adversaries.
[What is the difference between the Trump and Biden investigations into classified documents?]
Cannon has suggested in the past that he sees Trump's status as a former president as setting him apart from others who have kept classified files.
After Trump's team sued the Justice Department in 2022 to recover its files, Cannon appointed a special prosecutor to conduct an independent review of documents taken during the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago.
That appointment was later overturned by a federal appeals court.
This Thursday's hearing is the second this month in the Florida case, one of the four proceedings that Trump faces in his attempt to return to the White House in November.
Cannon heard arguments March 1 about when to set a trial date, but has not yet ruled.
Prosecutors have pressed the judge to set a date for this summer, while Trump's lawyers are seeking to push it back until after the election.