Judge Aileen Cannon removed from the Mar-a-Lago indictment a paragraph that referenced former President Trump’s use of one of the confidential documents found in his Florida home, slightly narrowing the case against him while at the same time denying their efforts to dismiss the case.
The paragraph in question concerns allegations that Trump showed a confidential map to an employee of his political action committee, acknowledging that “he shouldn’t show the map” and telling the employee not to get too close.
Cannon agreed with Trump’s legal team that its inclusion in the indictment was “not appropriate” after they argued that the reference was prejudicial because it was not linked to any crime alleged in the indictment.
Prosecutors could still point to the exchange as evidence during the trial, but the ruling nonetheless finds Cannon castigating special counsel Jack Smith’s team, calling much of the prosecution’s language “legally unnecessary.”
On the other hand, she appeared to criticize Smith for using what is known as a “verbal indictment,” where prosecutors lay out their accusations in great detail, essentially telling the story of their case through court documents.
“The Court also notes the risks that may arise from a prosecutor’s decision to include in a charging document an extensive narrative account of his or her view of the facts, especially in cases of significant public interest,” Cannon wrote.
She would later write that the “identified deficiencies, even if they created some debatable confusion” were permitted by law.
Cannon’s decision takes one of Trump’s many pretrial motions to dismiss the case off his desk.
The judge pointed out these motions by indefinitely postponing the trial date, unable to set a new one until she resolved what she described as numerous complex motions before her.
Legal experts criticized the time Cannon spent thinking through the motions, with many arguing that she spent too much time reviewing what many considered a relatively straightforward case.
Trump faces charges on 41 counts related to the case, most of which are Espionage Act charges that seek to withhold classified records after he leaves the White House. He also faces obstruction of justice charges related to his failure to return the records after a subpoena and withholding them from investigators and his own lawyer.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
