A federal judge in former President Donald J. Trump's classified documents case on Monday dismissed a small but significant portion of the indictment, ruling that the government must remove from the charge an incident in which Trump allegedly showed highly classified military maps to one of his top aides after he left office.
Judge Eileen M. Cannon's ruling was less of a major blow to the charges in the case and more of a scathing criticism of the prosecutors, including special prosecutor Jack Smith, who prosecuted Smith. While Judge Cannon removed the evidence from the indictment on a technicality, prosecutors could still present that evidence to a jury if the case ultimately goes to trial.
The incident Judge Cannon prosecuted took place at a meeting at Trump's golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, in August or September 2021. During the meeting, prosecutors said, Trump showed classified maps related to ongoing military operations to a representative of his political action committee, widely believed to be Suzie Wiles, who now serves as a top adviser to Trump's campaign.
Prosecutors said Trump told Wiles, showing him the map, that the military operation was not going well.
Trump's lawyers had objected to the inclusion of this episode in the indictment as irrelevant and irrelevant as part of a broader attack of charges. They argued that it should not have been included in the indictment because Trump was not formally accused of illegally transmitting classified material to others, only of illegally storing it after he left the White House.
In his ruling, Judge Cannon denied the lawyers' request to dismiss the charges in their entirety, but noted that prosecutors had chosen to charge Trump with what's known as an “oral indictment,” which describes events in evocative terms rather than simply listing legal violations.
She said she agreed with Trump's lawyers, who argued that much of the indictment's language, including the map episode, was “legally unnecessary” and that “risks could arise from prosecutors' decisions to include lengthy descriptions of their version of the facts in the indictment.”
Judge Cannon added that it was “inappropriate” to include the map story in the indictment, given that one of Smith's top aides acknowledged at a hearing last month that the map story was not directly related to the charges facing Trump.
During a hearing in U.S. District Court in Fort Pierce, Florida, Deputy Sheriff Jay I. Blatt told Judge Cannon that the case was not about the alleged conduct but rather was presented as illustrating the former president's tendency to handle classified materials recklessly.
Blatt said the evidence was admissible under Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 404(b), which allows prosecutors to tell jurors about “bad acts” committed by a defendant that are not directly charged in the case.
Judge Cannon expressed skepticism of Blatt's claims throughout the hearing.
“Do indictments typically include a 404(b) section?” she asked.
When Blatt said he had included similar evidence in other indictments, Judge Cannon countered, “Is that appropriate?”
