Former President Donald Trump spent Thursday sitting in a Florida courtroom while his opponent, President Joe Biden, hit the campaign trail — a reminder that Democrats’ 2024 campaign strategy of “get Trump” lawfare is dangerous election interference regardless of the outcomes of particular prosecutions.
Biden spoke to voters in Michigan and Wisconsin this week and is slated to visit North Carolina soon as he tries to patch potential holes in the “blue wall.” Meanwhile, Trump appeared in court to defend himself from special prosecutor Jack Smith’s relentless campaign to jail the former president.
After the hearing on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon denied one of Trump’s motions to dismiss the Biden Justice Department’s classified documents case against him. Cannon argued in a two-page ruling it would be premature to decide now whether the Espionage Act’s applicability to a former president is unconstitutionally vague, as Trump’s team argues. (Cannon has not yet ruled on another motion to dismiss, which argues Trump had “unreviewable discretion” to designate documents as personal under the Presidential Records Act.)
But in doing so, Cannon gave Trump’s team the opportunity to raise the issues during the trial.
“Although the Motion raises various arguments warranting serious consideration, the Court ultimately determines … that resolution of the overall question presented depends too greatly on contested instructional questions about still-fluctuating definitions of statutory terms/phrases as charged, along with at least some disputed factual issues,” Cannon wrote. She opted “to deny the Motion without prejudice, to be raised as appropriate in connection with jury-instruction briefing and/or other appropriate motions.”
Some leftists, including former U.S. attorney and MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance, fretted Friday that the decision could end up bolstering Trump’s chances of having his case tossed entirely should Cannon side with Trump at trial — something she called a “nightmare scenario.”
Vance explained to Salon that if Cannon had ruled in Trump’s favor, special counsel Jack Smith could have then appealed her ruling.
“But that’s not the case if, after today’s ruling in the government’s favor, she permits Trump to resurrect the motion at trial. She could grant the motion to dismiss the case then,” at which point the Biden DOJ likely “can’t appeal,” Vance said. “That’s because once a jury has been empaneled, double jeopardy ‘attaches’ and prevents the government from retrying the defendant on the same charges if he’s acquitted.”
Cannon did express skepticism at Trump’s argument that the Espionage Act is “unconstitutionally vague,” telling the defense at the hearing “I’m not seeing how any of that gets you to the dismissal of the indictment,” according to Courthouse News. Still, her decision leaves the door open for Trump’s team to argue the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act later down the road.
But even if Trump succeeds everywhere in court, Democrats’ lawfare is achieving its goal of costing him time and money in a busy campaign season. And it’s being led by the Justice Department of Trump’s main opponent.
Smith, of course, was appointed by Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, who has weaponized the Justice Department against political enemies before. Furthermore, Jay Bratt, a prosecutor on Smith’s team, had a meeting in the White House with then-deputy chief of staff for the White House counsel’s office Carolina Saba and FBI agent Danielle Ray in March of 2023, according to the New York Post, which cited visitor logs. Trump was indicted by Smith weeks later for what the DOJ claimed was improper retention of classified document at Mar-a-Lago.
Bratt had two prior meetings at the White House in 2021 around the same time Trump was working with the National Archives to return requested records, according to The Post.
Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley said the meeting “raises obvious concerns about visits to the White House after [Bratt] began his work with the special counsel.” Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said there was “no legitimate purpose for a line [DOJ] guy to be meeting with the White House except if it’s coordinated by the highest levels,” according to The Post.
As Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 78, an individual can only unjustly lose his liberty at the hands of the judicial system if the judicial system is in cahoots with the executive or legislative branch.
The courts will not endanger “the general liberty of the people … so long as the Judiciary remains truly distinct from both the Legislature and the Executive,” Hamilton wrote. “Liberty can have nothing to fear from the Judiciary alone, but would have every thing to fear from its union with either of the other departments.”
By weaponizing the justice system against Trump, who is beating Biden slightly in most polls, Jack Smith and the rest of the “get Trump” gang are attempting to achieve just that.
