The federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case handed special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors another stinging defeat earlier this week.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon brutally rejected a request by prosecutors to deny defense attorneys access to certain documents and materials during the discovery process. In a ruling, she said that Smith’s team’s efforts to restrict discovery were based on a “broad and unconvincing theory” as well as an “atextual” and “almost blithe” interpretation of the corresponding federal statute, The Western Journal reported.
The request comes after Smith charged Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira with conspiring with the former president to retain classified documents at his South Florida home illegally.
In her Wednesday ruling, Cannon said the Office of Special Counsel too broadly interpreted the Classified Information Procedures Act, saying it did not comport with a plain reading of the statute.
