CNN’s legal analyst speculated that former President Donald Trump might have won when U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon denied his attorneys’ request to have their lawsuit dismissed regarding secret information on Thursday.
Host Erin Burnett stated, “We’ve made the point that the headline seemed that it was a loss for Trump.” “But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that there was a fairly significant victory.”
Ryan Goodman, an analyst, informed host Erin Burnett:
He therefore asserts that the highly classified materials are personal and that he has the ability to miraculously transform them into his own. The law does not mention that. That is plain absurd. Thus, rather than the judge stating, “Well, that’s obviously absurd,” “I’m not deciding that pretrial,” she uttered. I may allow it to occur during the trial, and I may make that decision at any point throughout the proceedings. I’ll genuinely say, “Oh, those are your personal documents?” at this point. I render an acquittal judgement.
And Rule 29 refers to that. It would be too late if she did it in the middle of the trial. It cannot be appealed. She’s actually kind of given him a loss.
Meanwhile, another CNN legal expert agreed that Smith should be “very worried” about this particular case.
Analyst Elie Honig’s remarks came after Cannon, who has increasingly come under fire from the left over her handling of the classified documents case, took Smith to task in a three-page order on Thursday over his latest filing.
According to Honig, some legal experts have speculated that Smith might appeal to the 11th Circuit to seek Cannon’s removal from the case. The 11th Circuit has previously vacated two Trump-friendly rulings made by Cannon in this case. However, Honig believes that yesterday’s ruling has all but thwarted that possibility.
Trump is facing 32 counts of violating the Espionage Act. According to Smith, the charges are related to his alleged possession of government documents and his attempt to obstruct their retrieval. The FBI discovered the material during a search warrant executed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.