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Mar-a-Lago Judge’s Stark Ruling: Jury Sees Secret Files or Trump Wins
Yahoo ^ | 3/18/24 | Jose Pagliery

Posted on 03/18/2024 10:09:24 PM PDT by CFW

The MAGA-friendly federal judge who keeps siding with Donald Trump in his Mar-a-Lago classified records case has forced prosecutors to make a stark choice: allow jurors to see a huge trove of national secrets or let him go.

U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s ultimatum Monday night came as a surprise twist in what could have been a simple order; one merely asking federal prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers for proposed jury instructions at the upcoming trial.

But as she has done repeatedly, Cannon used this otherwise innocuous legal step as yet another way to swing the case wildly in favor of the man who appointed her while he was president.

Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith must now choose whether to allow jurors at the upcoming criminal trial to peruse through the many classified records found at the former president’s South Florida mansion or give jurors instructions that would effectively order them to acquit him.

Alternatively, Smith could appeal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, where more experienced judges have already overturned Cannon and reined her in. But doing that will only further delay a trial that’s at least three months behind schedule, entirely by the judge’s own design. (She froze the investigation and tried to slow-roll document review until the appellate court forced her to stop.)

(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: cannon; classified; classifieddocs; dailybeast; florida; josepagliery; judgecannon; secrets; trump; univisionreporter; yahoo; yahoopropaganda
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Of course this is a very very slanted article from Daily Beast via Yahoo (just look at the adjectives applied to Trump and others), but this is a blow to Jack Smith's case in Florida. We will have wait until Julie Kelly or someone of her ilk chimes in with the intricacies of this ruling, but I bet Smith isn't going to like it one bit.
1 posted on 03/18/2024 10:09:24 PM PDT by CFW
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To: CFW

Crossfire Hurricane operation.


2 posted on 03/18/2024 10:10:49 PM PDT by blackdog ((Z28.310) Be careful what you say. Your refrigerator may be listening & reporting you.)
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To: blackdog

Here is another article, also from a left wing view-point, CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/18/politics/classified-documents-case-judge-presidential-records-act/index.html

I do not see how the “experts” can state the case has nothing to do with the Presidential Records Act since Trump was President when he declassified the documents and took them to Mar a Lago. Cannon is obviously not happy with the double-standards being applied to Biden versus Trump. If she had been appointed by Biden, the media would be calling her a “rising star in the judiciary”. But since she is a Trump appointee they have to disparage her every ruling.


3 posted on 03/18/2024 10:14:47 PM PDT by CFW (I will not comply!)
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To: CFW

If the evidence to too secret to show to a jury, and the prosecutor refuses to show the evidence, that is classic police state.


4 posted on 03/18/2024 10:22:01 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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To: DesertRhino

And this is WaPo’s article. The left is seriously butt-hurt over this Order by Judge Cannon. The Fulton County case is in shambles regardless of McAffee corrupt ruling and SCOTUS ruled states can’t take Trump off the ballot. The are beginning to worry they will not see Trump in prison prior to November. And, they had such high hopes.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/03/18/trump-judge-cannon-jury-instructions-pra/


5 posted on 03/18/2024 10:29:42 PM PDT by CFW (I will not comply!)
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To: DesertRhino

What? Does the prosecutor expect to simply wave a manila folder in front of a jury and say “I have in my hand super secret documents that Trump mishandled?” He needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the documents are in fact classified and are the exact ones found at Mar-a-Lago. SND that they were mishandled AND that Trump could not legally have them or declassify them.


6 posted on 03/18/2024 10:30:16 PM PDT by oldplayer
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To: oldplayer

AND, this article is so biased, it was both painful and embarrassing to read.


7 posted on 03/18/2024 10:31:24 PM PDT by oldplayer
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To: oldplayer
AND, this article is so biased, it was both painful and embarrassing to read.

True, but between the lines you could feel the pain of the author, and that gladdened my black heart.

8 posted on 03/18/2024 10:36:17 PM PDT by ScaniaBoy (Part of the Right Wing Research & Attack Machine)
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To: CFW

Yahoo is the worst.


9 posted on 03/18/2024 10:44:54 PM PDT by spincaster
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To: CFW

bttt


10 posted on 03/18/2024 11:20:31 PM PDT by angelsonmyside
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To: DesertRhino

If a jury can’t see the evidence how would they determine the facts and reach a verdict? Would it just be on the government’s say-so?


11 posted on 03/18/2024 11:21:25 PM PDT by lastchance (Cognovit Dominus qui sunt eius.)
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To: CFW

“..allow jurors to see a huge trove of national secrets or let him go”

The proper procedure is to leak these to the legacy media then the jury can read it.

A jury is to determine facts. If the question of Trump’s guilt depends on him having mishandled documents which fall on the Espionage Act (which I claim does not apply to presidents)then the jury must see those documents to determine if they are indeed the “huge trove of national secrets.” We all know the docs will be heavily redacted anyway.


12 posted on 03/18/2024 11:26:10 PM PDT by lastchance (Cognovit Dominus qui sunt eius.)
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To: CFW

Obviously, the documents are not a national security threat. That’s why Trump declassified them.


13 posted on 03/18/2024 11:33:18 PM PDT by Brown Deer
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To: CFW
Nope, no bias at all from yahoo and db. "documents found" as if they had not been in constant contact with Trump about the documents and didn't know they were there.

"instructions that would effectively render him not guilty" Oh the horror!!!!! Can't possibly have exculpatory evidence being seen by anyone. Whatever the documents are they aren't much at all. What is more, there is no process for the President to declassify except that he can. The act of taking the documents is declassification. Done.

14 posted on 03/19/2024 12:05:12 AM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance)
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To: oldplayer

Might be hard to prove about seating arrangements at a state dinner.


15 posted on 03/19/2024 12:06:31 AM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance)
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To: spincaster

No, the worst is having your wife read to you from yahoo with you pleading for her to stop it.


16 posted on 03/19/2024 12:07:27 AM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Procrastination is just a form of defiance)
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To: CFW
Although I’m not an attorney, I was involved in many civil trials in my (pre-retirement) employment. And one basic thing I know is that evidence cannot be introduced without a witness testifying to its origin and authenticity. The attorneys can’t testify, nor in a criminal case as with this one, can the prosecutor testify. So it seems to me that in this case someone would have to testify first to the authenticity of the alleged documents and to their level of classification, and I don’t see how that could be done without the jury seeing them. Otherwise, the prosecutor could just fill some file boxes with blank sheets of paper and expect the judge and jury to just assume that they contain the documents he alleges they contain. Even if he put an FBI agent involved in “the raid” on the stand to testify to their legitimacy, you still have to enter the actual documents into evidence (though it could be under a protective order to avoid disclosure to the general public).

I can’t fathom a trial in which the evidence is never seen by the jury (nor presumably, by the judge). “Everybody knows that…” doesn’t fly in court, even for facts that might seem obvious. Nothing more than “Just trust me” from the prosecutor should lead to an automatic dismissal.

17 posted on 03/19/2024 12:21:06 AM PDT by noiseman (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; BraveMan; cardinal4; ...

18 posted on 03/19/2024 12:25:05 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: noiseman

BREAKING: President Trump files a DEFAMATION lawsuit against
@ABC and George Stephanopoulos for saying he was found liable for rape which he wasn’t.


19 posted on 03/19/2024 12:26:57 AM PDT by CFW (I will not comply!)
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To: noiseman

I should have added: How would the prosecutor even show a specific document to a witness to have them authenticate it, without the “unwashed” jury seeing it? If not simultaneously shown to the jury, he could be showing the witness the Sunday comics for all they would know. Also, I would think the prosecutor would have to go through that exercise with every individual document.


20 posted on 03/19/2024 12:27:26 AM PDT by noiseman (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
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