Cannon is giving the parties in the Mar-a-Lago documents case 2 options for jury instructions on the PRA issue
As someone who oversaw PRA issues for 2 years in the White House, several things jumped out at me
1st, BOTH are wrong! 1/x
The PRA is totally beside the point.
Classified records are governed by a different body of law, including EO 13526, which I also worked on.
I explained in this @CNNOpinion oped 2/x
cnn.com/2023/06/10/opi…
“Trump’s claims that the Presidential Records Act (PRA) justifies his behavior doesn’t pass muster because that statute doesn’t actually have anything to do with the critical question of whether his possession of these documents was authorized — the EO covers that.” 3/x
“Yet Trump and his legal team claim that the PRA applies, arguing that the PRA, which provides in general terms for the handling of government documents by ex-presidents, allows Trump to decide unilaterally if any document is personal, and thus legally hold onto it.” 4/x
“But the statute nowhere stretches the definition… to encompass our nation’s most sensitive secrets. On the contrary, personal documents are defined as “purely private” ones which “do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the … duties of the President.”” 5/x
“Trump’s position ignores that, trying to dodge the actual law that applies — the executive order. Even though Obama was no longer in office when Trump allegedly took documents.. his executive order was and is still in effect, and nothing in the PRA contradicts it.” 6/x
So what’s going on here? 7/x
Cannon seems inclined to push the case to trial but is basically asking if she can stack the deck so Trump wins
It’s clumsy & amateurish—seems to know she’s wobbly & she’s asking the parties for help with threshold things that are normally figured out by the judge 8/x
If she persists in this course, special counsel Jack Smith can & will go to the 11th Circuit
And while he is there, this & several other recent (threatened) blunders give him ammo to have her reversed & removed
FIN/ slate.com/news-and-polit…
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