Jack Smith Makes Another Push to Keep Documents Under Seal

Jack Smith

Special Counsel Jack Smith asked Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday to reconsider her decision to unseal certain documents prosecutors wanted to keep from the public docket.

Cannon, who is overseeing the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump in Florida, ruled Tuesday that certain discovery material Smith wanted to keep under seal because it could impact the safety of potential witnesses would be disclosed out of the “strong presumption of public access in criminal proceedings.” Smith urged Cannon to reconsider her decision, arguing that she “applied the wrong legal standard and issued orders that, in practice, will expose witnesses and others to intolerable and needless risks.”

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Julie Kelly Commentary: Lower Courts Dare SCOTUS to Act with Lawless Rulings, But Will They?

Throughout 2020, both Republicans and Democrats warned that the U.S. Supreme Court would ultimately determine the winner of the presidential election — albeit for different reasons.

Democrats feared a conservative majority would uphold what they called “voter suppression” laws to tighten voting requirements that might benefit President Trump. Republicans worried how the court would handle cases related to lax absentee voting measures enacted as a result of the coronavirus pandemic that gave Joe Biden a big advantage.

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Trump Might Enter 2024 Election Unscathed as Court Dates Are Delayed, Legal Attacks Falter

Trump Courtroom

As former President Donald Trump’s legal difficulties continue to stack up, scheduling conflicts and trial delays offer relief and highlight an emerging path for him to enter the 2024 election without a conviction, should he be the Republican nominee.

Facing the strain of four separate criminal indictments while running a presidential campaign, Trump has sought to postpone trials in his cases until after the election. At least two judges — the one overseeing his Florida classified documents case and another overseeing his New York case for allegedly falsifying business records — have signaled a willingness to delay, while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis believes the Georgia trial may not conclude until early 2025.

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Commentary: Chaos in the Classified Documents Case

At one point during a contentious hearing in her Florida courtroom on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon confronted the Department of Justice about its concurrent federal indictments against Donald Trump.

Cannon pressed Jay Bratt, the chief prosecutor on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case, to name another instance when the government brought charges against the same defendant on two different matters within a few months of each other. (Smith indicted the former president last June in the southern district of Florida for unlawfully keeping national defense information at Mar-a-Lago and obstruction of justice. Seven weeks later, Smith charged Trump in the District of Columbia with four counts related to the events of January 6.)

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Judge Signals She May Delay Trump Classified Documents Trial

The federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case signaled that she would consider postponing the coming May trial, according to Politico.

Trump’s lawyers requested in early October that the trial be delayed until “at least mid-November 2024,” after the 2024 election, citing scheduling conflicts with other trials along with delays in record production by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon did not issue a ruling during a Wednesday hearing but was skeptical that the original schedule could still be met, according to Politico.

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Judge Orders Attorneys in Trump Documents Case to Get Security Clearance

A federal judge ordered all the attorneys involved in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case to move forward with the process to get security clearance. 

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon told all the attorneys to “complete all outstanding applicant tasks required to obtain the requisite security clearances in this matter” by July 13. 

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