June 10 will mark a full year since U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon was randomly assigned Donald Trump’s classified documents case. There is no set trial date. There have hardly been any rulings. But now, at least, there will be a full day and a half of hearings later this month during which right-wing attorneys who are not even part of the case will be given the opportunity to argue that special counsel Jack Smith never should have been allowed to bring charges in the first place.
The facts of the case are this: Trump, as he left the White House in the wake of his failed insurrection, took top-secret classified documents – dealing with everything from nuclear programs to battle plans – and refused to give them back. A search of his Mar-a-Lago resort found state secrets in his office and a bathroom. An audio tape shows Trump discussed one, about a possible attack on Iran, and acknowledged he did not have the right, later asserted by his defense, to unilaterally disclose it: “See as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
