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Tag: Aileen Cannon
April 22, 2024
Raheem J. Kassam
Lawfare
News

NEW: Unredacted Docs Reveal Biden, Garland, Jack Smith Collusion in Trump ‘Documents’ Case.

Unredacted documents published Monday have begun to reveal the extent of the Biden government’s collusion with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to “concoct a case” against President Donald Trump. The records also appear to confirm that President Trump was telling the truth when he said his team was still negotiating chain of custody with NARA when they suddenly made a criminal complaint.

Reporter Julie Kelly revealed: “Thanks to order by Judge Cannon, key evidence related to classified docs case is now unredacted. On the left: What DOJ/Jack Smith wanted to conceal. On the right: Now we know why. More proof of collaboration btw Biden White House and NARA to concoct a case.”

The documents without markings reveal a complex attempt by Biden’s Department of Justice, working hand-in-hand with the Obama-appointed National Archivist David Ferriero to cease normal ongoing negotiations with an outgoing president and instead begin a criminal investigation – something that has never happened before.

Ferriero, who resigned in 2022 while demanding Joe Biden refuse to hire a white person in his place, reportedly “ran out of patience” with the normal process of negotiating with Trump’s team for any documents that were removed during the White House transition.

This, as well as details about how the case emerged, were unredacted by Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday.

The unredacted documents prove the case was being concocted by Biden’s own White House and the Department of Justice under Merrick Garland months before the NARA criminal referral – a revelation that will rankle Biden’s campaign team which has advised the 46th President to steer clear of the topic for fear of public scrutiny.

The news follows recent Rasmussen polling that revealed most Americans now believe the cases against Trump are a “politically motivated witch-hunt” and that the 45th President is unlikely to encounter an untainted jury.

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Unredacted documents published Monday have begun to reveal the extent of the Biden government's collusion with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to "concoct a case" against President Donald Trump. The records also appear to confirm that President Trump was telling the truth when he said his team was still negotiating chain of custody with NARA when they suddenly made a criminal complaint. show more
Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira
April 12, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Lawfare

Trump Co-Defendants Seek to Dismiss Charges.

Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, employees and co-defendants of Donald Trump in Jack Smith‘s documents prosecution, are slated to appear in court to contest the charges they face.

Both Nauta, who started as Trump’s valet and later ascended to a personal aide position, and De Oliveira, who also started as a valet and rose to Mar-a-Lago property manager, are pivotal in Smith’s larger narrative against the former President. The special prosecutor alleges they helped their employer try to conceal boxes containing classified information from the authorities — charges they deny.

Nauta’s lawyers are seeking to persuade Judge Aileen Cannon to throw out charges against him centered on allegations he moved 64 boxes from a Mar-a-Lago storage room to Trump’s living quarters before a lawyer was due to examine them for classified material requested in a federal subpoena.

Nauta’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., argues Smith’s indictment does not even allege Nauta “knew that there were classified documents on premises” at Mar-a-Lago and that he could not have committed a crime simply by moving boxes with contents of which he was unaware.

“How could providing documents for President Trump to review prior to subpoena compliance be an act that obstructs justice?” Woodward’s filings ask.

Lawyers for De Oliveira, accused of helping Nauta move around 30 of the boxes, also argue he did not know what was in them or that they were wanted for a federal investigation. They also note the boxes were “reviewed only hours after they were moved” for subpoena compliance in any case.

The pair also deny asking Mar-a-Lago technician Yuscil Taveras to delete security footage of the boxes being moved. Even if such a request was made, Taveras did not comply with it, and the footage was preserved.

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Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, employees and co-defendants of Donald Trump in Jack Smith's documents prosecution, are slated to appear in court to contest the charges they face. show more
April 10, 2024
William Upton
Lawfare

Jack Smith Blasted for ‘Failure’ to Address Opposing Arguments.

Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over DOJ special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump over allegations he mishandled classified documents, chided the Biden government attorney multiple times for failing to respond to arguments made by opposing parties in an April 9 court filing. While Judge Cannon agreed to Smith’s motion asking the names of witnesses in the trial be redacted, she accused the special counsel at least eight times in her ruling of having failed to respond to objections raised by a coalition of press organizations who weighed in against Smith’s motion.

“The Special Counsel had two opportunities to raise these arguments and failed to do so in both instances. The Special Counsel’s initial Seal Request failed to offer a governing legal framework or any factual support for the relief sought,” Cannon wrote in her ruling. She continued: “Later, in response to the Press Coalition’s Motion, the Special Counsel failed to engage with — let alone refute — the Press Coalition’s argument that the First Amendment attached to the subject materials.”

The judge also criticized Smith for failing to comply with the court’s rules regarding the sealing of sensitive filings. “And this is to say nothing of the Special Counsel’s failure to comply with this District’s Local Rules on sealing, which the Court has emphasized repeatedly throughout this proceeding,” Judge Cannon wrote.

Prior to this most recent ruling, the relationship between the special counsel and Judge Cannon had already been under strain. Last week, the two tangled over the judge’s order requesting both Smith and attorneys for former President Donald Trump submit draft jury instructions, including arguments about the potential applicability of the Presidential Records Act. This latest episode suggests that the judge’s opinion of Smith may have fallen even further.

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Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over DOJ special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution of former President Donald Trump over allegations he mishandled classified documents, chided the Biden government attorney multiple times for failing to respond to arguments made by opposing parties in an April 9 court filing. While Judge Cannon agreed to Smith's motion asking the names of witnesses in the trial be redacted, she accused the special counsel at least eight times in her ruling of having failed to respond to objections raised by a coalition of press organizations who weighed in against Smith's motion. show more
April 3, 2024
Lawfare

Jack Smith is Attacking a Judge For Upholding This Critical U.S. Law…

Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team slammed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for issuing an order asking prosecutors and defense attorneys involved in the Trump classified documents case to file proposed jury instructions based on what Smith alleges is a “fundamentally flawed legal premise.”

Cannon accepted the argument from Trump’s legal team that the President Records Act (PRA) permitted the former President to keep sensitive documents at this home in Palm Beach, Florida. The PRA, enacted in 1978, permits former presidents to retain personal documents after leaving office but mandates that outgoing presidents return all official presidential records to the National Archives.

On Tuesday, Smith and his team submitted a filing claiming the PRA is irrelevant to the case. “Not a single one had heard Trump say that he was designating records as personal or that, at the time he caused the transfer of boxes to Mar-a-Lago, he believed that his removal of records amounted to designating them as personal under the PRA,” the filing claims.

Smith is leading what many observers believe to be a politically motivated investigation into Trump’s handling of classified material. In December of last year, a CNN analyst said Smith was trying to jail Trump before the election. The same month, the Supreme Court denied Smith’s request for an expedited hearing on Trump’s presidential immunity claims. Adding to concerns about Smith’s impartiality in the case are revelations that the Justice Department is trying to hide the identities of individuals who work for the special prosecutor.

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Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team slammed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for issuing an order asking prosecutors and defense attorneys involved in the Trump classified documents case to file proposed jury instructions based on what Smith alleges is a "fundamentally flawed legal premise." show more