Aileen Cannon's 'Sweetener' for Donald Trump Could Backfire: Attorney
Former President Donald Trump gives the keynote address at Turning Point Action's "The People's Convention" on June 15, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan. The latest ruling from the federal presiding over the classified documents case against Trump could backfire, according to a Florida prosecutor.
The "sweetener" offered to former President Donald Trump by Aileen Cannon, the federal judge presiding over the classified documents case, could backfire, according to a Florida prosecutor.
Cannon on Monday denied a request to dismiss some of the charges against Trump, but struck a paragraph from the indictment that alleged Trump had shown a classified map of a foreign country to a representative of his political action committee. Trump's lawyers had argued the paragraph was prejudicial because it was not linked to any alleged crime charged in the indictment.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is charged with illegally retaining classified documents taken with him from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left office in January 2021, and then obstructing government demands to give them back. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied all wrongdoing.
Cannon's decision to strike the paragraph has been described as a "sweetener" for Trump by a top legal commentator. The judge, a Trump appointee, has been accused of being too favorable to the former president and of seeking to delay the trial until after November election.
In an appearance on MSNBC on Saturday, Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, where Mar-a-Lago is located, said that Cannon's move could lead to Special Counsel Jack Smith filing additional charges.
"I think she likes to give [Trump] a win and she was rejecting his request to dismiss everything," Aronberg said.
"But I see this as a consolation prize. This is something like you know, 'I had a rule against you, but here's a little piece of butterscotch because I didn't take you out for ice cream.'"
Aronberg went on to say that Smith hasn't charged Trump with dissemination of classified documents, but could do so in the future.
"Really, Judge Cannon's daring Jack Smith to do it, saying, 'If you want to bring this stuff up, you got to charge him with that crime,'" he said. "And Jack Smith's probably thinking, 'All right, don't tempt me with a good time because I'll do it.'"
Smith's office declined to comment. A Trump attorney have been contacted for comment via email.
It comes after Trump was found guilty on May 30 of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, making him the first former U.S. president to be convicted of felony crimes. Trump denied wrongdoing and has falsely blasted the trial as "rigged" after the verdict.
His sentencing in that case is scheduled for July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention, where party members are set to formally make him their nominee for president.
As well as the classified documents case, Trump is facing another two criminal cases as he seeks to win back the White House. In another case brought by Smith, he is charged with conspiring to overturn the results of his election loss to President Joe Biden in the run-up to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
In Georgia, he has also been charged alongside several others with participating in a scheme to illegally try to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden in the state.
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