Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed federal district court judge overseeing the Justice Department's documents case against the former president, denied the special counsel's motion for a protective order in the case Wednesday because the defense and the prosecution have not conferred sufficiently.
According to the Guardian and the Independent, Cannon told the Department of Justice that it can refile the motion for the protective order, required under section three of the Classified Information Procedures Act, once it has adequately conferred with attorneys for Trump and the personal aide charged alongside him, Walt Nauta.
New: Judge Cannon tells DOJ to refile proposed CIPA S3 protective order governing use of classified discovery bc parties haven’t sufficiently conferred — replacing earlier tweet and deferring to @secretsandlaws that giving Trump team a couple of days to review was their misstep
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) July 19, 2023
JUST IN: Judge Cannon has denied the DOJ motion for a protective order over classified discovery because the defence and prosecution haven’t adequately conferred on the matter. DOJ can ask for one again once they’ve conferred with Trump/Nauta attorneys. pic.twitter.com/yZT0DSiuwg
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) July 19, 2023
The CIPA governs the use of classified materials during a case with section three requiring the court — at the government's request — to issue an order "to protect against the disclosure of any classified information disclosed by the United States to any defendant in any criminal case."
The DOJ reached out to the defense Friday regarding the proposed protective order but filed the motion Monday after not receiving any engagement from them that day or over the weekend, Bloomberg News reports. In the Wednesday hearing, Cannon told the DOJ that it needed to give Trump and Nauta's legal teams more time to negotiate the terms for handling the sensitive materials.
DOJ said they reached out to Trump defense Friday about the proposed protective order re: classified material, and then filed it Monday when they didn't get engagement over the weekend. Judge said that seemed rushed for something important where they should be conferring
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) July 19, 2023
Legal experts decried Cannon's decision Wednesday, arguing that the move substantiates the efforts to delay the trial being made by Trump's legal team, who the Guardian reported "weren't interested in engaging" with the Justice Department to confer.
"This is a bad call by Cannon! The DOJ attempted to confer with defense counsel and didn't hear back from them. This is on defense counsel, not DOJ. Cannon should hold defense counsels' feet to the fire [fire emoji], and not delay CIPA proceedings because of the BS gamesmanship," MSNBC legal analyst Katie Phang wrote on Twitter, calling it "another assist by Cannon that unnecessarily delays the proceedings."
Former federal prosecutor Brandon Van Grack, who served on special counsel Bob Mueller's team, said it was "very odd to deny the motion" instead of "requiring defense counsel to articulate objections."
"On Monday, DOJ explained it had reached out to defense counsel on Friday, who did not wish to confer that day or over the weekend. Defense counsel cant get classified docs w/o a protective order," he wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
"This adds more delay," legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti tweeted.
This adds more delay. https://t.co/EuksC7jmly
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) July 19, 2023
"Oy. When one side does not meet, it is hard to confer," added former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, another Mueller probe alum and NYU law professor. "This legitimizes defense delay tactic."
Oy. When one side does not meet, it is hard to confer. This legitimizes defense delay tactic. https://t.co/T9jtl7rrnu
— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) July 19, 2023
