WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Former President Donald Trump urged a Florida judge to dismiss the criminal case charging him with illegally retaining classified documents, claiming in part that presidential immunity protects him from prosecution even as that sweeping argument has so far in failed in federal courts in a separate case.
In one of a slew of motions attacking the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, Trump's lawyers late Thursday echoed arguments that were this month in his 2020 election interference case in Washington. Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in that case as the Republican presidential primary front-runner seeks to delay the trial until after the November election.
Trump's lawyers wrote that the classified documents charges turn on his alleged decision to designate the papers as 鈥減ersonal鈥 records under the Presidential Records Act, and argued that he cannot be prosecuted since that was an 鈥渙fficial act鈥 made while he was still in the White House.
Trump has denied wrongdoing , and has cast himself as the victim of a politically motivated justice system as he seeks to reclaim to the White House in November.
Washington鈥檚 federal appeals court was unsparing in its repudiation of Trump鈥檚 novel claim that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for actions that fall within their official job duties. But Trump鈥檚 lawyers argued that the appeals court decision was wrong, telling U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon not to follow the court鈥檚 鈥減oorly reasoned decision" in the classified documents case.
In other court filings late Thursday, Trump鈥檚 lawyers argued that Attorney General Merrick Garland鈥檚 appointment of special counsel Smith to investigate the former president was 鈥渦nlawful鈥 and grounds for dismissing the documents case. They also are attacking the law Trump is accused of violating as 鈥渦nconstitutionally vague鈥 as applied in his case.
The case accuses Trump of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. A June 2023 indictment charging him with dozens of felony counts alleges investigators found boxes of sensitive documents recklessly stored at Mar-a-Lago in spaces including a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, his bedroom and a storage room.
Prosecutors have said the documents risked jeopardizing not only relations with foreign nations but also the safety of troops and confidential sources. They've also accused Trump of asking a staffer to delete camera footage at his Florida estate in an effort to obstruct the federal investigation into his records.
The case is currently scheduled to go to trial in May, but Judge Cannon and signaled an openness to revisiting the trial date during a pivotal pretrial conference set for March.
Smith鈥檚 other case against Trump, accusing him of scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss, was supposed to go to trial in March, but that date was canceled while the former president pushed his claims of presidential immunity. Trump鈥檚 lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to while he continues to fight his presidential immunity claim.
The Supreme Court has previously held that presidents are immune from civil liability for official acts, and Trump鈥檚 lawyers have for months argued that that protection should be extended to as well.
The justices' decision on what to do and how quickly they act could determine whether the 2020 election case goes to trial before the November election. It carries enormous political ramifications, as Trump 鈥 if he wins 鈥 could potentially use his authority as head of the executive branch to try to order a new attorney general to dismiss the federal cases. Or he potentially could seek a pardon for himself 鈥 something that鈥檚 a legally untested proposition.
