The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s classified documents case, Aileen Cannon, has ruled against the former president on Wednesday.
Trump, has pleaded not guilty to 40 federal charges over allegations he illegally retained classified and top secret documents when he left office in January 2021 and then obstructed the federal attempt to retrieve them.
Meanwhile, Cannon, a Republican, was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida by Trump and assumed office in November 2020. Cannon, who is presiding over the case, has headed numerous Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) discussions with Trump’s lawyers and Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team to deal with how the sensitive materials connected to the case should be handled during proceedings.
On Wednesday, Cannon denied Trump’s request to access the special counsel’s CIPA Sec 4 filing, where Smith would have to explain why they wanted to redact some of the classified documents.
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“Defendants’ Motions are DENIED. Although the import of the Special Counsel’s position effectively changes the unambiguous discretionary language of CIPA § 4 into a prohibition on adversarial litigation in this context—and although defendants raise compelling arguments in favor of exercising judicial discretion to permit attorneys’-eyes-only access to the CIPA § 4 filings under the circumstances of this case—the Court ultimately denies Defendants’ Motions,” Cannon writes in her ruling.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s spokesperson via email for comment.
The ruling comes as Trump has previously praised Cannon, stating he is “very proud” to have appointed her, adding, “She’s very smart and very strong and loves our country.”
However, Cannon has faced public scrutiny for issuing rulings favoring Trump, including delaying the case’s pre-trial schedule in a move that could significantly slow down the case.
Meanwhile, Trump’s co-defendants in the federal case, aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira are also accused of moving boxes of sensitive materials around Trump’s Florida home to prevent federal agents from finding them and conspiring to delete security footage at Mar-a-Lago which had been sought under subpoena.
Nauta and De Oliveira have pleaded not guilty to all federal charges against them, including conspiracy to obstruct justice.
In addition, Wednesday’s ruling comes just after Cannon ruled in a separate matter in the case in favor of Smith.
Smith’s office had previously filed a motion asking that Cannon refuse Nauta and De Oliveira’s request to view the confidential presidential records they are accused of moving around Mar-a-Lago in boxes, arguing it was not necessary for their defense.
In response, Cannon sided with Smith after ruling he had “carried his burden” to withhold the materials from Nauta and De Oliveira.
“The Special Counsel has made a sufficient showing that Defendant Nauta and De Oliveira’s personal review of the materials produced in classified discovery would not be ‘relevant and helpful’ to their defense,” Cannon wrote.
“Unlike the charges brought against Defendant Trump, the document-related charges against Defendants Nauta and De Oliveira do not require proof that they willfully retained documents ‘relating to the national defense.’ The Special Counsel also indicates that he does not intend to present evidence suggesting that Defendants Nauta and De Oliveira acted with an inculpatory purpose specific to them and to the 102 classified-marked documents seized from Mar-a-Lago,” Cannon added.
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