Remember when U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon floated a fringe legal theory that could help throw Donald Trump’s classified documents case in favor of the former president?
Well, special counsel Jack Smith just filed a devastating response, telling Cannon that he might have to challenge the Trump appointee on appeal if she doesn’t get it together.
As a refresher, Cannon asked the parties to file proposed jury instructions, regarding the federal charges alleging that Trump illegally retained national defense information. In doing so, she told them to consider two “scenarios,” both of which lend credence to the notion that the Presidential Records Act applies in this case. The problem is that the PRA is irrelevant to these criminal charges. So injecting the issue into the trial could lead the jury to think that Trump could do whatever he wanted with classified documents, which would obviously go against the criminal law that says otherwise.