Donald Trump’s week is all but guaranteed to get a lot worse after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — who Trump personally appointed to her position and undoubtedly expected to thereby “work” for him — flat out denied a motion submitted by the ex-president and his legal team to dismiss a slew of counts in his indictment in the infamous Mar-a-Lago stolen classified documents case.
This bombshell reporting broke from MSNBC’s Katie Phang in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), linking to Cannon’s ruling, with the caption, “UST IN: Judge Cannon DENYING Trump’s Motion to Dismiss Counts 1-32 based on unconstitutional vagueness.”
JUST IN: Judge Cannon DENYING Trump’s Motion to Dismiss Counts 1-32 based on unconstitutional vagueness.https://t.co/kkcxLnwO8E
— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) March 14, 2024
In their motion to dismiss, Trump’s defense team argued that the charges in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against the former president related to unlawfully retaining classified information were defective due to “unconstitutional vagueness.”
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Cannon — who has been the epicenter of her own controversy, suspicions, and speculations as a judge who is presiding over a case against the very man who appointed her to the bench and has, on many occasions throughout this case, seemingly made decisions and rulings that have left legal experts and the American people questioning just how deeply her loyalty to Donald J. Trump lies — already appeared rather skeptical of the Trump team’s argument on this matter in a hearing that took place on Thursday of this week.
Cannon wrote:
Although the Motion raises various arguments warranting serious consideration, the Court ultimately determines, following lengthy oral argument, that resolution of the overall question presented depends too greatly on contested instructional questions about still-fluctuating definitions of statutory terms/phrases as charged, along with at least some disputed factual issues as raised in the Motion.
For that reason, rather than prematurely decide now whether application of 18 U.S.C. § 793(e) in these circumstances yields unsalvageable vagueness despite the asserted judicial glosses, the Court elects to deny the Motion without prejudice, to be raised as appropriate in connection with jury-instruction briefing and/or other appropriate motions.”
Despite this ruling against the former president, Judge Cannon has remained unwilling to answer what could be considered the most important question in this case — when is Donald Trump going to trial?
Given that this is one of the most expansive, evidence-rich cases, of the many criminal cases currently going against the former president, with some of the most serious implications in the realm of national security, Americans and legal experts alike have expressed that it is only right for this case to go to trial before the rapidly approaching 2024 presidential election, in an effort to give American voters the clearest and most complete picture possible about the man they could be voting for or against.
Of course, Donald Trump desperately does not want that to happen, and it has seemed as though Cannon is trying to make that possible for him.
She has yet to release any information regarding changes to the trial schedule, though it is widely expected that the current date of May 20th will be pushed back.
Special Counsel Smith has proposed a July trial date, while Trump and his team have suggested August, at the earliest, but ideally after the election entirely.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
