A federal judge in Florida on Thursday rejected former President Donald Trump's efforts to dismiss the classified documents case against him, rebuffing his argument that the case should be tossed due to the Presidential Records Act, a federal law which governs the preservation of presidential records.
Trump faces 40 criminal counts in the case related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Florida estate and hampering the government's efforts to retrieve them. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied any wrongdoing, denouncing the case as politically motivated.
Attorneys for Trump argued that, as president, he was within his rights to designate the materials as personal under the Presidential Records Act and take them with him after his term, but federal prosecutors rebuffed that argument, saying that classified documents are not covered under that statute.
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, agreed with special counsel Jack Smith's team, writing in her ruling that the charges against Trump "make no reference to the Presidential Records Act, nor do they rely on that statute for purposes of stating an offense."
"For these reasons, accepting the allegations of the Superseding Indictment as true, the Presidential Records Act does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss," she later added.
Cannon had recently asked both Trump and Smith's teams to prepare jury instructions based on scenarios related to the Presidential Records Act, a move that the special counsel's team bashed as "wrong" and "fundamentally flawed." Smith urged Cannon to rule quickly on the matter, vowing to take the matter to an appeals court should she rule against the prosecution.
In her order on Thursday, Cannon fired back at Smith, declining his request for a quick decision as "unprecedented and unjust."
"The Court’s Order soliciting preliminary draft instructions on certain counts should not be misconstrued as declaring a final definition on any essential element or asserted defense in this case," Cannon wrote. "Nor should it be interpreted as anything other than what it was: a genuine attempt, in the context of the upcoming trial, to better understand the parties’ competing positions and the questions to be submitted to the jury in this complex case of first impression."
Trump has made multiple motions to dismiss the case, including the one rejected Thursday. Cannon rebuffed a previous bid from Trump to have the case tossed on the basis of "unconstitutional vagueness." He has also sought to dismiss the case on claims of presidential immunity, which has halted a separate federal prosecution against him over alleged efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election. The Supreme Court will hear arguments about the immunity question later this month. He has also attempted to argue that he faces "selective and vindictive prosecution" in a separate motion to dismiss.
All told, Trump faces 91 felony charges across four separate criminal prosecutions. In addition to the two federal cases against him, the ex-president faces a case in Georgia over alleged efforts to overturn the state's election results -- the judge overseeing that case rejected his effort to dismiss it earlier Thursday -- and a case in New York accusing Trump of falsifying business records in relation to alleged hush money payments to an adult film star during the 2016 presidential campaign, which is set to begin this month.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him.