TRUMP ON TRIAL: Judge In Trump’s Docs Case Hands Jack Smith’s Team Big Setback.
Smith and his prosecutors had requested to keep documents seized during the FBI’s August 2022 raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in a private facility outside of the Florida district where the case was filed, but U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed, refused to allow it.
Cannon ordered Smith to share the documents in a location convenient for Trump’s legal time, within the South Florida district.
“The parties are advised the production of classified discovery to defense counsel is deemed timely upon placement in an accredited facility in the Southern District of Florida, not in another federal district,” Cannon wrote. “It is the responsibility of the Office of the Special Counsel to make and carry out arrangements to deposit such discovery to defense counsel in this District.”
The ruling is another favorable to Trump as it builds on a previous decision over the summer denying Smith’s request to hide his list of 84 witnesses from Trump’s legal team. Smith had argued that Trump’s frequent critique of his court cases in public and on social media would prejudice or intimidate those witnesses who could see their names made public.
Related: The Left Is Coming to Terms With Failure to Lawfare Trump Out of the Race.