U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon on Wednesday denied former President Donald Trump's request to see more of the classified evidence federal prosecutors submitted in his Florida criminal trial over his alleged willful retention of national security materials and obstruction of government efforts to retrieve them. That level of access is not usually granted in these cases, the judge determined, noting that withholding the records would not weaken Trump's defense, The Washington Post reports.
Cannon, in the nine-page ruling, rejected the request to see the filings under Section 4 of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which protects national security secrets of issue in criminal proceedings. She suggested that special counsel Jack Smith may have overstated the CIPA law in his argument against sharing the materials with the defense, noting that Trump's charges do not include transmission of the sensitive information. She added that she understood the law to mean judges have the authority to make that decision themselves. “As best the Court can discern following its rigorous analysis, Defendants’ rights will not be impaired by today’s ruling,” she concluded.
"Judge Cannon's ruling is correct and obvious, and avoids her getting reversed for a 3rd time by the Eleventh Circuit," former Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann wrote on X/Twitter. "Predict she will also reverse herself on full disclosure of witness names/statements (for same reason). Many more motions for her to decide..."
"Had Cannon ruled in Trump's favor she would have [been] plainly wrong," former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance added. "Special Counsel would have had no option but to appeal & she would have been promptly reversed & perhaps ordered to step aside."
Cannon plans to hold a pivotal hearing in the case Friday where she will cover evidence disputes between prosecutors and the defense, the trial schedule and a related spat over proposed redactions in court records. This case is one of four criminal cases Trump has been charged in.
