Donald Trump arrested: Judge Cannon denies Jack Smith request for protective order
Kaelan Deese
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The federal judge presiding over former President Donald Trump‘s classified documents case denied special counsel Jack Smith‘s request for a protective order governing the use of classified documents for now.
Attorneys for the Justice Department had sought for U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to impose a protective order over the classified documents at issue in the case during a Classified Information Procedures Act, or CIPA, hearing on Tuesday. Cannon denied the request “for lack of meaningful conferral,” according to a paperless filing on Tuesday.
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Ahead of the nearly two-hour Tuesday hearing, government attorneys informed Cannon they had not heard from Trump’s counsel since their July 14 request to have a call with the defendants “in order to see if it was possible to address the Defendants’ concerns,” according to court records.
In the proposed request, the language of the government’s filing indicated the DOJ wants some materials given to Trump’s lawyers to be off-limits to the former president. Cannon’s denial was notable given that Trump’s counsel likely would have appealed the protective order due to a lack of communication between the parties about the scope of what the government sought.
“Very odd to deny the motion vs requiring defense counsel to articulate objections,” former national security official Brandon Van Grack tweeted on Wednesday.
The government contends it is Trump’s team that is stalling talks about the order, as Smith’s team sought Cannon to move forward on that request to “avoid further delay” by the former president’s defense.
DOJ attorneys sought to confer with the Trump legal team last week and over the weekend and did not receive responses to multiple requests from defense lawyers at the time.
Smith’s team can make another request for a protective order with the defense’s attorneys once they have conferred.
The Tuesday hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida, was mostly procedural and concerned the necessary process for handling classified documents in public trials under CIPA.
Cannon has also been tasked to set a start date for a trial in the case and has signaled she won’t establish a schedule sooner than the government’s desire to begin in December but also did not appear poised to grant Trump’s request to delay the trial until after the 2024 election.
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Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche said during the hearing that an eventual trial could last up to two months.
Trump, who is seeking another shot at the Oval Office, remains the front-runner for the Republican nomination. Last month, he and his aide, Walt Nauta, were charged in a 38-count indictment that accused the former president of improperly retaining classified documents at his Florida residence and asking Nauta to shield some of the materials secretly despite government demands for their return.