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Left: FILE — Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File). Right: Special counsel Jack Smith speaks about an indictment of former President Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023 (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin). Inset: In this image from video provided by the U.S. Senate, Aileen M. Cannon speaks remotely during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight nomination hearing to be U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on July 29, 2020, in Washington.
The federal judge overseeing the trial over classified documents kept at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate after Trump left office will hear from both parties — separately — on the issue of who can review classified material in the case.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a 2020 Trump appointee, issued an order Monday outlining how she will hear upcoming arguments over special counsel Jack Smith’s attempt to use the Classified Information Procedures Act or CIPA to limit access that Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira to reviewing classified discovery.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Trump’s lawyers and Smith have been battling over access to documents in the case — the thousands of pages of documents relating to his time in office at the ex-president’s Florida residence. Smith wants to limit the defendants’ access, while Trump and the men charged along with him have argued that they are entitled to see it.
Cannon announced that she will hear arguments from both sides early next week. On Monday, Feb. 12, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., she will “hear argument from defense counsel for all Defendants, outside the presence of the Special Counsel,” the order says. Nauta and De Oliviera do not need to appear.
“Defense counsel shall be prepared to discuss their defense theories of the case, in detail, and how any classified information might be relevant or helpful to the defense,” the order also says, and instructs the defense attorneys to be prepared to discuss both defendants’ requests for access to CIPA-related filings and motions.
Smith will have two hours — from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. that same day — to make his argument, according to Cannon. She similarly instructed Smith to be prepared to discuss its CIPA motions as well as “follow-up items from the sealed, ex parte hearing held on January 31, 2024.”
As Law&Crime reported, a hearing was set last week for Cannon to evaluate classified filings from Smith that Trump and his co-defendants want to review.
“These proceedings will be held in a facility suitable for discussion of the classified information contained within the parties’ Section 4 submissions,” Cannon wrote, referring to the section of the CIPA statute that allows for the removal of certain classified material.
Cannon also ordered the parties to keep the following day — Tuesday, Feb. 13 — available for “further proceedings” on the matter.
Read Cannon’s order here.
