Jack Smith Fails to Persuade Aileen Cannon to Keep Trump Info Secret
February 6, 2024
3,959
Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed arguments from Special Counsel Jack Smith and granted the requests of Donald Trump’s legal team to unseal certain portions of the documents they are given in discovery.
Appointed to the court by Trump himself, Cannon was selected to oversee the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) criminal case against Trump concerning his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort after the end of his presidency. In an indictment from June, Trump was hit with a total of 37 counts initially, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and claimed that he was within his rights to retain all of the documents in question.
Special Counsel Jack Smith. Florida Judge Aileen Cannon was not persuaded by recent arguments Smith’s team made in favor of redacting information provided to Donald Trump’s legal team. Special Counsel Jack Smith. Florida Judge Aileen Cannon was not persuaded by recent arguments Smith’s team made in favor of redacting information provided to Donald Trump’s legal team. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Throughout her time overseeing the case, Cannon has been accused by some observers of issuing decisions favorable to the former president who appointed her. In a Tuesday filing, Cannon once again ruled mostly in Trump’s favor when she dismissed Smith’s arguments for keeping certain classified information redacted in documents provided to Trump’s team during discovery, including the names of certain potential witnesses, the uncharged conduct of certain individuals, and the FBI codename for a separate investigation.
“Neither the Special Counsel’s publicly filed Response nor the accompanying sealed filing identifies the information it seeks to redact,” Cannon’s decision explained. “Although ‘protection of a continuing law enforcement investigation’ can constitute a compelling governmental interest…the Special Counsel fails to identify the information at issue, provide any explanation about the nature of the investigation, or explain how disclosure of the code name would prejudice or jeopardize the integrity of the separate investigation (assuming it remains ongoing).”
Cannon did, however, cede to Smith’s office that certain information about “signals intelligence sub-compartments” included in the superseding indictment that added new charges against Trump in July could remain redacted, due to national security concerns.
“The Court determines at this stage that the Special Counsel’s national security concerns are sufficient and specific to warrant sealing of the ‘signals intelligence sub-compartments’ as redacted in the Superseding Indictment,” the filing added.
Newsweek reached out to the DOJ press office via email for comment.
The effort by Trump’s team to unseal certain information in discovery documents previously received a boost after a coalition of media organizations, including The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, the Miami Herald, and The Palm Beach Post, filed a motion urging the court to make sure the redactions were fully justified. The motion was denied as moot in the Tuesday decision, as the ruling accomplished its requests anyway.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
A legjobb élmény biztosítása érdekében olyan technológiákat használunk, mint a cookie-k az eszközadatok tárolására és/vagy eléréséhez. Ha beleegyezik ezekbe a technológiákba, akkor olyan adatokat dolgozhatunk fel ezen az oldalon, mint a böngészési viselkedés vagy az egyedi azonosítók. A hozzájárulás elmulasztása vagy visszavonása bizonyos funkciókat és funkciókat hátrányosan érinthet.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
