Judge rejects defense’s argument based on Presidential Records Act claiming Trump could take documents when he left office
A federal judge refused on Thursday to throw out the classified documents prosecution against Donald Trump, rejecting a defense argument that the case should be tossed because he was entitled as a former president to retain the records after he left office.
Lawyers for Trump had cited a 1978 statute known as the Presidential Records Act in arguing that he was permitted to designate records from his time in office as personal and take them with him when he left the White House.
Prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team vigorously opposed that argument, saying the statute had no relevance in a case concerning classified documents.
US district judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, sided with the government in a three-page order, writing that the indictment makes “no reference to the Presidential Records Act, nor do they rely on that statute for purposes of stating an offense”.
Trump faces 40 charges arising from his retention of classified information after leaving the White House and alleged obstruction of attempts to recover such records. He has pleaded not guilty.
