Topline
Former President Trump attacked Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith as a “lowlife” and said he should be punished, after he strongly rebuked an order from Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon that Smith said would give merit to Trump’s attempts to scrap his criminal charges for holding classified documents.
Key Facts
Trump said Smith should be “sanctioned or censured for the way he is attacking a highly respected Judge, Aileen Cannon,” he wrote on Truth Social Thursday, calling Smith “a lowlife who is nasty, rude, and condescending, and obviously trying to play the ref.’”
Trump was responding to Smith’s sharply worded response on Tuesday to Cannon’s request for prosecutors and Trump’s legal team to produce jury instructions under two competing interpretations of the Presidential Records Act, which Trump has used to defend himself in the case, essentially claiming that he designated the classified documents he allegedly brought with him to Mar-A-Lago as personal records.
The Presidential Records Act allows presidents to retain “highly personal information, such as diaries, journals, and medical records” after leaving office.
Cannon asked the parties to lay out one scenario in which a jury would be allowed to review the records and determine which ones were personal and which ones were subject to retention by the National Archives and Records Administration, and a second scenario that assumes Trump had the authority to make that determination himself.
Smith’s office wrote Tuesday the order was based on an “unstated and fundamentally flawed legal premise” that would “distort the trial,” while calling on Cannon to “promptly” determine if her order equates to a “correct formulation of the law,” threatening to appeal if she rules against the DOJ, which could delay the trial past the November election.
The Presidential Records Act, Smith added, should have no bearing on the case, because the records Trump is accused of taking with him are safeguarded under the Espionage Act, which prohibits “unauthorized possession” of national defense information.
Chief Critic
Some legal experts have strongly rejected Trump’s Presidential Records Act defense. Jason R. Baron, former director of litigation at the National Archives, told the Washington Post the premise was “absurd,” noting “a president cannot designate records about White House official business — classified or unclassified — as personal.”
Key Background
Trump was charged last year with 32 counts of violating the Espionage Act, plus eight counts of obstructing the government’s attempt to collect the records, after investigators recovered 11,000 documents, including roughly 300 with classified markings, from his Florida estate. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. In addition to arguing he had the authority to designate the classified records as personal under the Presidential Records Act, he claimed “presidential immunity” protected him from prosecution, repeating a defense he has used in his various criminal and civil cases that Cannon and other judges have rejected.
Further Reading
Judge Denies One Of Trump’s Motions To Dismiss Classified Documents Case (Forbes)
Trump Arrives In Court For Classified Documents Hearing—Here’s What To Know (Forbes)