Jack Smith Melts Down In Desperate Plea To Judge Cannon
Biden Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith is on the verge of waging war with Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge overseeing the former president’s classified documents case in Florida.
Smith on Tuesday filed a desperate appeal requesting that Judge Cannon rule expeditiously on jury instructions related to the President Records Act (PRA), which former President Donald Trump has claimed allowed him to declassify all documents found in his possession at Mar-a-Lago, even some containing national security secrets.
Smith alleges that Judge Cannon’s request for competing jury instructions relies on a “fundamentally flawed legal premise.”An immediate review, Smith writes, would allow him to seek an appeal if Judge Cannon agrees with the former president that the PRA does not distinguish between governmental records and personal property, according to Salon. If the case goes to trial under such instructions, he adds it would “distort the trial.”
“The PRA’s distinction between personal and presidential records has no bearing on whether a former President’s possession of documents containing national defense information is authorized under the Espionage Act, and the PRA should play no role in the jury instructions,” Smith said in the filing. “Indeed, based on the current record, the PRA should not play any role at trial at all.”
