Judges issue conflicting orders on access to classified material in Trump cases

Two judges overseeing different federal cases against former President Donald Trump issued strikingly different interpretations within minutes of each other on access to classified material.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied Trump’s legal team’s motion to access a tranche of government evidence against the president that is marked as classified in the case accusing the former president of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Meanwhile, in South Florida, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, declined to opt for one more blanket restriction of access that lawyers for Trump’s co-defendants have to some of the classified information at issue in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

“So again we are left with the [the special council’s] broad and unconvincing theory, which is that the Court should change the meaning of the word “defendant” to mean, essentially, “defense counsel to the exclusion of the accused.” The court refuses to do so,” Cannon wrote in a 15-page order.

Cannon’s order was specific to Trump’s valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago maintenance chief Carlos De Oliveira, who have also been charged in the classified documents case.

Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, has generally been seen as friendly to the former president’s legal team in the Mar-a-Lago case. US District Court for the South / AFP via Getty Images Donald Trump has criticized the large number of accusations against him as a “witch hunt” and electoral interference. AFP via Getty Images

Cannon further ordered special prosecutor Jack Smith’s team to request the removal of portions of classified discovery files “from any defendant” during a pretrial motion.

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“This order does not authorize the disclosure of any classified information to any defendant beyond the terms of existing protective orders,” he emphasized.

Smith’s office is leading the cases involving the Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago documents.

During a hearing on that case’s timeline on Wednesday, Cannon also noted that he was sympathetic to Trump’s push to delay the trial, which is scheduled for May 2024.

“It’s hard for me to see how this work can be done in this tight time frame,” Cannon said.

Trump, 77, is scheduled to go to a separate trial on March 4, just one day before the Super Tuesday presidential primary, for the Jan. 6 case against him that will be tried by Chutkan.

In his order Wednesday, Chutkan agreed that federal prosecutors can withhold “certain classified information” from Trump’s defense team.

Judge Tanya Chutkan has pardoned Donald Trump’s legal team in the past. Recently, she reimposed a partial gag order against the former president.AP

“The government is authorized to withhold the classified information specified in its motion and to provide the defense with the unclassified summary substitution specified in its motion,” Chutkan wrote in a five-page order.

Last month, Trump’s legal team sought “lawyer-only” access to classified material.

Documents with classification marks hidden at Mar-a-Lago. AP Boxes of records hidden in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, as seen in the indictment.AP

The exact nature of the classified material in the January 6 case is not fully known. The classified documents in the Mar-a-Lago case largely pertain to records Trump allegedly hoarded from his presidency after leaving the White House.

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In both cases, Chutkan and Cannon faced the Classified Information Procedures Act (CHIPA).

“To begin with, it should be emphasized that the defense does not identify any case in which any court has ordered the relief they seek here, and this court is not aware of any,” Chutkan wrote in his order.

“Apart from the particular provisions of CIPA, it is understood that Congress in CIPA did not intend to weaken or expand the rights of a criminal defendant or alter pre-existing rules relating to the use or admissibility of information in such cases “Cannon wrote.

Trump faces a total of 91 criminal charges, including four counts in the Jan. 6 case, 40 counts in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, 34 counts out of Manhattan and 13 counts in the Georgia election case.

The former president has vehemently denied wrongdoing across the board and has pleaded not guilty in all pending cases.

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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