Judge Just Handed Trump Sudden Unexpected WIN
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon of Florida granted former President Donald Trump a victory on Monday in his lawsuit involving sensitive documents, limiting the extent of evidence the prosecution can use against him.
The judge, appointed by Trump, delivered a major setback to special counsel Jack Smith by ruling that Department of Justice representatives could not bring up a private meeting where Trump allegedly boasted about obtaining a very sensitive military map during his White House tenure.
The New York Times described the ruling as “more of a swipe” at Smith. As a result, Smith will have to remove the admission from the initial 53-page indictment.
Prosecutors claim that during a meeting at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, in August or September of 2021, Trump showed a representative of his political action committee a map depicting active military activities. This presentation was “widely believed,” according to The Times, to have been given to Susan Wiles, a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Prosecutors stated in the original indictment that the former president’s aide lacked “any need-to-know” security clearance to view the document, and they claim Trump informed Wiles that the operation wasn’t going well.
Limiting Smith’s reference to the map makes it more difficult for him to argue convincingly that Trump attempted to conceal some thirty-six secret documents throughout his administration.
The main argument centers on Trump’s reluctance to yield the documents, despite multiple requests from the National Archives of the United States (NARA).
However, Judge Cannon has removed redactions from evidence indicating that Smith’s office colluded with NARA officials to draft a criminal case without informing Trump’s legal team. Under the Presidential Records Act, Trump insists he is innocent and declassified all the materials he possesses.
Trump’s attorneys have dismissed Smith’s allegations as baseless and unnecessary, pointing to the Wiles narrative to frame the federal case as politically driven. They argue that in order to prove such a case, Trump must be accused of inappropriately communicating classified material to other parties, which he has not done, according to The Times.
In her ruling, Judge Cannon stated that rather than merely listing criminal charges, Smith’s office has assumed additional responsibility by providing a “speaking indictment” that uses dramatic language to describe the case. She stated that the map story’s presentation was “legally unnecessary” and that there could be risks if a prosecutor included an in-depth narrative explanation of their interpretation of the facts in a charge document.
Furthermore, considering that one of Smith’s deputies had earlier acknowledged that the map had nothing to do with the accusations against Trump, Cannon continued, it was “not appropriate” for Smith to proceed with the tale. During the hearing, the deputy, Jay I. Bratt, stated that the story was kept to show the jury Trump’s tendency toward careless actions.
He also highlighted a federal statute that permits juries to be informed of “bad acts” committed by a defendant that are not directly connected to the charges against them. According to Judge Cannon’s decision, prosecutors will have to seek her approval before presenting the story of Trump’s meeting with Wiles at trial, which is highly unlikely to occur before Election Day.