The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s indictment for withholding classified documents agreed Monday to remove from the indictment a passage about an episode in which the former president brandished classified documents at a Bedminster, New Jersey, club.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that she would strike out the passage because Trump had not been charged with a crime for the conduct described in the passage and would have been inconclusive if jurors later saw it at trial. Can create unfair bias.
Cannon’s ruling is noteworthy because it could indicate how she will rule on future motions by Trump to suppress evidence as he seeks to limit the scope of evidence prosecutors can present against him, greatly weakening the case.
Legal experts said the move to remove the paragraph was unusual.
Cannon ruled that the paragraph should be struck, relying in part on a federal rule that says evidence of “other crimes” cannot be used to charge a defendant with bad character without addressing the second part of the rule, which states that evidence of “other crimes” cannot be used to charge a defendant with bad character. This is allowed under: Show proof of motivation.
Prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith’s office argued they included the passage precisely because Part II of the rule allowed it, but Cannon said Trump was not punished for the conduct he described. This fact was disputed.
According to people familiar with the matter, the passage (paragraph 36) uses vague terminology but describes Trump in 2021 brandishing a classified map of Afghanistan while addressing his current 2024 presidential campaign manager Suzy Weill Sri Lanka criticized the US troop withdrawal.
“In August or September 2021, when Trump was no longer president, he met with representatives of his political action committee (“PAC representatives”) at his Bedminster Club offices. During the meeting, Trump Commenting that the ongoing military operation is not going well,” the paragraph reads.
“Trump showed the PAC representative a classified map of Country B and told the PAC representative that he should not show the map to the PAC representative or get too close. The PAC representative did not have a security clearance and had no need to know about military operations confidential information.
Cannon’s move came in a 14-page decision in which she rejected Trump’s request to dismiss the obstruction of justice charge.
Cannon wrote that she denied Trump’s motion in large part because his complaints were matters of fact that should have been raised as part of his defense arguments at trial and could not form the basis for dismissal of the indictment, rather than the law. question.
