Judge Aileen Cannon issued a jury instruction order in Jack Smith’s classified documents case and the leftist legal analysts are going apocalyptic.
Cannon gave two options for jury instructions.
The first option:
In a prosecution of a former president for allegedly retaining documents in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(e), a jury is permitted to examine a record retained by a former president in his/her personal possession at the end of his/her presidency and make a factual finding as to whether the government has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it is personal or presidential using the definitions set forth in the Presidential Records Act (PRA).
The second option is:
A president has sole authority under the PRA to categorize records as personal or presidential during his/her presidency. Neither a court nor a jury is permitted to make or review such a categorization decision. Although there is no formal means in the PRA by which a president is to make that categorization, an outgoing president’s decision to exclude what he/she considers to be personal records from presidential records transmitted to the National Archives and Records Administration constitutes a president’s categorization of those records as personal under the PRA.
CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen said both of Judge Cannon’s options for jury instructions are wrong.
“Cannon seems inclined to push the case to trial but is basically asking if she can stack the deck so Trump wins,” Norm Eisen said.
MSNBC’s legal reporter Jordan Rubin responded with “Judge Aileen Cannon is at it again.”
“Her latest weird move in Donald Trump’s classified documents case involves jury instructions. That may sound like a mundane subject but it’s quite important, because these instructions are what a jury will use to consider whether special counsel Jack Smith has proved his case beyond a reasonable doubt. (That is, if the Trump-appointed judge ever sets a trial date and a trial actually happens.)” – Jordan Rubin wrote.
Jordan Rubin said Cannon is “apparently contemplating instructions that could effectively win Trump’s case for him…”
“The problem is that Cannon is apparently contemplating instructions that could effectively win Trump’s case for him, regardless of how strong the evidence against him is. To understand why, recall that the judge’s latest move comes against the backdrop of Trump’s claim that, under the Presidential Records Act, he could have deemed whatever sensitive government records he wanted to as “personal” and then taken them with him from the White House, precluding the government from prosecuting him over the retention. It’s a nonsensical position that Cannon could have rejected outright, but she chose to hold a hearing on it last week.” Jordan Rubin wrote.
A J6 defense attorney told investigative reporter Julie Kelly that if Cannon gives these jury instructions, Jack Smith is “f*cked.”
Judge Cannon last Thursday denied one of Trump’s two motions debated to dismiss the classified documents case.