FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Attorneys for Donald Trump will argue in a Florida courtroom on Thursday to dismiss the federal criminal case involving his handling of classified documents on the grounds that the Presidential Records Act bars his prosecution.
Trump’s legal team and prosecutors for special counsel Jack Smith are expected to argue their positions on whether all or some of the charges should be thrown out because of the 1978 law that governs the preservation of information during and following a presidency.
Smith has called on the judge overseeing the case to reject Trump’s claim that he should be shielded from prosecution because classified presidential records “can be transformed into ‘personal’” records by removing them from the White House. Trump has said that he designated the materials he took to Mar-a-Lago as personal records while still in office. A president’s personal records are excluded from the act’s requirements.
The sides will also discuss a second motion to dismiss the case on the theory that the main statute used against Trump is unconstitutionally vague as it applies to presidents and can’t be used against him. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges that he wrongfully held on to classified information after leaving the White House.
Presiding over the case is U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. She has said both sides should expect to spend the entire day in court. Trump’s lawyers indicated that he and his two co-defendants would attend the hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Their lawyers have also sparred over the timing of the trial, originally scheduled to begin on May 20, but which Cannon is expected to push back. The judge granted the defendant’s request for more time but has not set a new trial date.
Trump is facing dozens of felony charges in the indictment, including willful retention of national defense information, false statements and representations, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record and corruptly concealing a document. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.
Trump’s co-defendants in the case, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, have also pleaded not guilty to the related charges against them in the indictment. The special counsel accused Nauta and De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago property manager, of seeking to erase security footage at Mar-a-Lago after the Justice Department sought to obtain it. De Oliveira is also accused of making false statements to prosecutors.
All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to the counts against them.
Trump has appeared in court more often in recent months, attending most of a trial in writer E. Jean Carroll’s second defamation case against him this year and several days of the monthslong civil fraud trial brought against him and his business by New York Attorney General Letitia James late last year.
In a court filing asking for more time to respond to other outstanding motions in the documents case, Trump’s attorneys said they were preparing for the March 25 start date of his New York criminal trial.
Trump’s lawyers are also seeking to delay the trials until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on his claims of presidential immunity because it could affect how the case proceeds.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
