Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Bit more -- Other Trump motions to dismiss the indictment remain unresolved by the judge, the trial date is in flux .. https://apnews.com/article/trump-maralago-justice-department-37c55a10c4ae304eb673292145cc9cf1 , and additional legal disputes have slowed the progress of a case that prosecutors say features voluminous evidence of guilt by the former president.

In Thursday’s ruling, Cannon also defended an order from last month that asked lawyers for both sides to formulate potential jury instructions and to respond to two different scenarios in which she appeared to be continuing to entertain Trump’s presidential records argument.

The order puzzled legal experts and drew a sharp rebuke from Smith’s team .. https://apnews.com/article/trump-classified-documents-a99a6bc9fd9b44ffddecf979f8e1baa9 , with prosecutors in a filing this week calling the premises the judge laid out “fundamentally flawed” and warning that they were prepared to appeal if she pushed ahead with jury instructions that they considered wrong.

“The Court’s Order soliciting preliminary draft instructions on certain counts should not be misconstrued as declaring a final definition on any essential element or asserted defense in this case,” Cannon wrote. “Nor should it be interpreted as anything other than what it was: a genuine attempt, in the context of the upcoming trial, to better understand the parties’ competing positions and the questions to be submitted to the jury in this complex case of first impression.”

Still, she said, if prosecutors were demanding that jury instructions be finalized prior to trial and the presentation of evidence, “the Court declines that demand as unprecedented and unjust.”

In addition to affirming the indictment Thursday, she also rejected a separate motion to dismiss last month that argued that the Espionage Act statute underpinning the bulk of the charges was unconstitutionally vague and should be struck down.

Cannon has yet to rule on other Trump efforts to dismiss the case, including arguments that presidential immunity shields him from prosecution and that he has been subject to “selective and vindictive prosecution.”

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-jack-smith-classified-documents-b862ec627ac0070e5353ac324d8d333f