Things continue to heat up in classified documents case.
Yesterday, Trump filed a motion asking Judge Cannon for permission to file a single brief not more than 200 pages to further detail their arguments against the case. This continues Trump's efforts to get redacted swaths of discovery unsealed--something Cannon is already contemplating but proceeding with caution:
Cannon just filed this order asking Trump's lawyers to stick with individual motions (slightly expanding normal size of motions) and for Jack Smith to respond to Trump's requests to unredact certain info.
Smith is fighting basically every request to make discovery, including unclassified evidence, available to the public--odd since Smith considers the "public" a party in the DC case.
Cannon has already denied some of Smith's requests and sternly reminds DOJ that transparency is paramount. She has already denied some of Smith's attempts to keep material under seal, ordering motions unsealed that should not have been.
Earlier this month...
Cannon granted Trump's request to unredact portions of a separate motion that was heavily redacted under existing protective order. The redacted passages dealt with comms with Biden White House; collusion btw DOJ and NARA; evidence of bias on Special Counsel team and other damning info. It's temp on hold as they continue to sort through redactions.
Cannon is very leery of Smith's attempts to conceal information. From her 2/6 order:
Jack Smith is trying to get away with the old "sources and methods" and "witness intimidation" defenses he gets away with in Judge Chutkan's courtroom in DC.
Cannon asked Smith to substantiate these claims.
From Smith's motion asking Cannon to deny Trump's request to unseal:
In addition to this fight, Cannon is weighing Smith's requests to keep classified material away from Trump in discovery process under Classified Information Procedures Act.
This statute allows the govt to conceal from defendants sensitive records they are accused of stealing--except the defendant has never been a former president whose administration created the records.
Next week will be interesting...all of this in advance of a planned hearing in Cannon's courtroom on March 1 on status of the case.
Stay tuned!
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