The judge in Trump’s classified-documents case asked lawyers to submit jury instructions related to Trump’s motions to dismiss.
The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s classified-documents trial has been criticized for instructing lawyers from both sides to provide potential jury instructions that relate to the former president’s motions to dismiss the case.
In a two-page order Monday, Judge Aileen Cannon asked Trump’s lawyers and the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith to submit two “competing scenarios” regarding the interpretation of the Presidential Records Act that are a “correct formulation of the law” to be given to a jury before it begins its deliberations.
Trump is seeking to dismiss the federal case, claiming that the PRA allowed him to determine the sensitive materials he took from the White House in January 2021 as his personal property, so he cannot be charged with their unauthorized possession.
Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump and has faced frequent criticism for her decisions during the classified-documents proceedings, previously expressed skepticism during a motion-to-dismiss hearing that this argument was a valid reason to dismiss the entire case before it reached a jury. During the same hearing, Cannon rejected another motion to dismiss from Trump regarding the wording of the Espionage Act, but she said the arguments could be raised again in connection with jury-instruction briefing.
A number of legal experts have now condemned Cannon’s request for Trump’s and Smith’s lawyers to put forward arguments that could be given to the jury at the end of the trial, even before the judge has confirmed when the former president can stand trial to face the 40 federal charges.
