Lawyers for ex-President Donald Trump will argue Thursday that Mr. Trump was entitled as president to keep any government records he wanted, a bid to dismiss charges in the classified documents case from special counsel Jack Smith.
Mr. Trump’s team will square off with Mr. Smith’s lawyers before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida one day after a judge in Georgia dismissed multiple counts of a separate case against the former president.
Mr. Trump arrived at the Fort Pierce courthouse in a motorcade of black SUVs, sparking cheers from onlookers.
The pretrial hearing pivots on whether Mr. Trump, under the Presidential Records Act, could keep records under his presidential powers.
The law says the National Archives and Records Administration receives custody of presidential records once a president leaves office.
Yet Mr. Trump says he had the leeway to negotiate which records must be returned from his Mar-a-Lago estate in southern Florida.
Mr. Smith says that is a misreading of the law.
“His claim that obviously presidential records — highly sensitive government documents bearing classification markings that were presented to Trump during his term in office — can be transformed into ‘personal’ records by the alchemy of removing them from the White House is false,” the special counsel said in court papers.
Judge Cannon told parties to expect a long day in court for arguments Thursday. A Trump appointee, she will play a key role in deciding whether to dismiss some charges or delay the trial beyond the November election.
The trial is set for May 20, but Judge Cannon is expected to set a new date.
Prosecutors say Mr. Trump’s penchant for hoarding sensitive government papers at his sprawling residence in Palm Beach, which also functions as a social club, violated federal law.
Investigators raided the estate in August 2022 after archivists suspected classified documents made their way from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.
Mr. Smith secured an indictment charging Mr. Trump with more than 40 counts, including 32 counts of unauthorized retention of national security secrets; seven counts of obstructing efforts to retrieve the documents; and three counts of making false statements.
Mr. Trump faces four criminal cases while he campaigns as the GOP front-runner for president.
He will face trial on March 25 in New York on charges he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and two others in 2016.
Mr. Smith secured a separate indictment charging Mr. Trump with conspiring against the U.S. and its voters with attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, and the case in Georgia says Mr. Trump and others violated state racketeering laws while challenging President Biden’s win in the state.
Judge Scott McAfee, presiding in Atlanta, dismissed three of the 13 counts against Mr. Trump on Wednesday, ruling prosecutors weren’t specific enough in detailing the charges.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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