While declining to dismiss the classified documents case against former President Trump, Judge Aileen Cannon questioned why Trump is the only president who has ever been charged with this offense.
The judge overseeing former President Trump’s Florida case questioned during a Thursday hearing why he was the only president who has been charged over his handling of classified material, according to multiple reports.
I feel good about dismissal🙏https://t.co/s6cMxmxoSs
— Diane (@LI_Islander) March 14, 2024
The crime in question is a violation of the Espionage Act, which prohibits unauthorized people from retaining national defense information.
Trump’s attorneys presented two legal arguments for dismissing the case. First, they asserted that the law behind the indictment is “unconstitutionally vague.” Judge Cannon responded that dismissal on these grounds would require the “extraordinary step” of striking down the statute in question and denied that motion.
Also cited by Trump’s defense was the Presidential Records Act, whose application in this case would designate the classified documents in question as “personal.” While not yet ruling on this second motion, Judge Cannon countered that it may belong as a defense in a trial and not as an argument for dismissal.
The Presidential Records Act gives a president authority to designate classified documents as “personal,” meaning Trump would have broken no law by retaining them.
The motion stated that Trump had “unreviewable discretion” to label documents as “personal” before he left the White House.
Critics claim that Trump’s interpretation of the Presidential Records Act would invalidate the Espionage Act, but others would submit that Congress should fix poorly constructed laws.
The case against Trump has also been called “selective and vindictive” by Trump’s defense, as Biden has notably not been charged with his own mishandling of classified documents.
In a double standard that infuriates many Americans, Special Counsel Robert Hur indeed found evidence that President Biden kept classified documents illegally but declined to charge him.
The material retained by Biden dated from after his term as Vice President and before he became president. Unlike Trump, Biden had no authority under the Presidential Records Act to declassify these documents.
Seah Hannity said on Fox News about Hur’s report: “Another blatant example of America’s two-tiered, unequal justice system.” Hur testified to Congress that Biden not only willfully retained top-secret material as a private citizen but shared it with people who have no security clearance.
“That seems like a pretty obvious crime, right?” concluded Hannity.
The case against Trump stems from classified documents found stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Additional charges against the former president allege that Trump obstructed justice by preventing the Department of Justice from retrieving the files and giving them to the National Archives.
Biden’s classified documents were found in various places, including unsecured locations at his Wilmington, Delaware home — such as his garage.
