The Florida federal judge overseeing former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago case fired shots at Biden Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith after he warned the judge that Trump was trying to “manipulate” her by seeking further delay in the case.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon confirmed that Smith used a “broad and unconvincing theory” about the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which he has attempted several times to deny Trump access to the evidence being used against him.
Smith claimed that the CIPA allows his team to withhold specific documents obtained from Mar-a-Lago on national security grounds.
Cannon wrote that Smith attempted to restrict defense attorneys “almost entirely from reviewing classified discovery to be produced in the case, and then placing the burden to justify otherwise on defense counsel.” According to the Florida judge, the prosecutor’s argument was an “atextual” and “almost blithe” interpretation of the CIPA law.
“The court, ‘upon a sufficient showing,’ [may] authorize the United States to delete specified items of classified information from documents to be made available to the defendant through discovery,” Cannon wrote.
Additionally, Cannon is expected to grant Trump a delay in the case alleging he mishandled classified documents.
If this were to happen, Trump would be handed a victory because it would push the start date for the trial past the 2024 presidential election. Its previous date for the start of the trial was slated to begin on May 20th, 2024.
Conservative reporter Julie Kelly took to social media to explain in her own words why Smith would be to blame for the delay in the case.
One of the reasons she cites is the fact that Smith brought two federal cases against Trump within two months of one another. After charging the former president in the Mar-a-Lago case, Smith submitted an indictment with additional charges, laying out 1.3 million documents of “evidence,” along with thousands of hours of video surveillance from Trump’s Florida home.
I'll have a column explaining it all after order is filed.
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) November 3, 2023
You will see much caterwauling by corporate media types and usual suspects like Weissmann and McQuade how Cannon is doing Trump's bidding.
But the blame lies SOLELY at the feet of DOJ. Jack Smith brought 2 unprecedented…
Trump’s legal team argues that the 45th president has not been given a fair trial. He has maintained his innocence, insisting that the documents found in his Mar-a-Lago home were declassified under the Presidential Records Act.
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