Cannon seemed to invite Trump to raise the argument again at trial, where Jack Smith can’t appeal, expert says

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday rejected one of former President Donald Trump’s motions to dismiss his classified documents case.

Cannon shot down Trump’s motion arguing that the Espionage Act is unconstitutionally vague when applied to a former president.

Cannon after a daylong hearing issued an order saying some of Trump’s arguments warrant “serious consideration” but wrote that no judge has ever found the statute unconstitutional. Cannon said that “rather than prematurely decide now,” she denied the motion so it could be “raised as appropriate in connection with jury-instruction briefing and/or other appropriate motions.”

“The Judge’s ruling was virtually incomprehensible, even to those of us who speak ‘legal’ as our native language,” former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wrote on Substack, calling part of her ruling “deliberately dumb.”

“The good news here is temporary,” Vance wrote. “It’s what I’d call an ugly win for the government. The Judge dismissed the vagueness argument—but just for today. She did it ‘without prejudice,’ which means that Trump’s lawyers could raise the argument again later in the case. In fact, the Judge seemed to do just that in her order, essentially inviting the defense to raise the argument again at trial.”

  • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    9 months ago

    The interesting thing about this case is that the espionage act actually is a dystopian nightmare. So while on the one hand I don’t want Trump to get special treatment, on the other hand, constitutional limits on this overly broad law might not be all bad.

    • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      9 months ago

      I can 100% guarantee that if Trump wins this case, they’ll just loophole former president’s out of it and leave the act as is.