A new ruling on Friday by Judge Aileen Cannon allows special counsel Jack Smith to prevent the Trump team from accessing portions of classified information found in discovery.
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 federal charges alleging that he illegally retained classified materials upon leaving the White House in January 2021 and obstructed federal authorities in their attempts to retrieve them.
Cannon, a Republican who was appointed by the former president to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in November 2020, granted Smith's request "to redact, substitute, or delete" entirely in two "categories," and allowed the move for most of another category.
She reserved ruling on remaining requests pending a resolution of issues raised by the Trump team based on additional discovery, and/or a follow-up ex parte Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) hearing with the special counsel.
Ex parte hearings are meetings in which only some parties, not all, are involved.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's legal team and the DOJ via email for comment.
"It's not surprising Judge Cannon granted these deletions, as they were a rather small amount of information in the end and the CIPA case law is rather clear," attorney Bradley Moss told Newsweek via email.
Moss added: "The only disconcerting aspect to this ruling is how long it took her to issue it. This could have and should have been addressed more than one month ago, at least. It didn't need to be this hard."
CIPA has been an integral part of this classified documents case against the former president and presumptive 2024 Republican nominee for president. These ongoing discussions have dealt with how sensitive materials and documents should be handled throughout proceedings, which are slated to start May 20 but believed to be postponed.
CIPA "applies both when the government intends to use classified information in its case-in-chief as well as when the defendant seeks to use classified information in his/her defense," according to the DOJ.
Smith's team filed a CIPA motion on December 6, 2023, and a response from Trump's lawyers was filed on December 20.
On January 16, Trump's lawyers filed under seal (but not ex parte) a classified challenge to Smith's motion—which in return prompted a classified response from Smith on January 30.
Following a series of ex parte hearings, Smith's team submitted three additional classified supplements to its Motion last month, each filed ex parte and under seal.
Cannon has faced substantial criticism in her role in overseeing this case, most recently due to reports that two of her law clerks quit in recent months—to which the court told Newsweek in response that it could not comment "on HR-related matters."
She's also come under fire for asking both the prosecution and the defense to submit two sets of proposed jury instructions before the trial begins, providing "competing scenarios" on the interpretation of the Presidential Records Act (PRA)—part of the basis of Trump's defense.
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About the writer
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
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