Trump legal team cites US Supreme Court immunity ruling, asks Florida judge to pause classified documents case

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — As legal observers predicted, Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for a partial pause of the government’s classified documents case against the former president so she can weigh how it might be impacted by the Supreme Court’s fresh ruling on presidential immunity.

Trump has argued that his decision to move documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach before he left the White House in January 2021 was effectively an “official act” he undertook as president and falls under the broadened immunity umbrella against prosecution that the U.S. Supreme Court now says exists for past, present and future presidents.

In a filing with Cannon’s court in Florida on Friday, the defense requests that the court pause all proceedings in the case except for a motion by Special Counsel Jack Smith to change the conditions of Trump’s pretrial release by restricting his public remarks about federal agents and their search for documents at Mar-a-Lago.

The defense wants Cannon to set hearings for the two sides to argue over the application of the high court’s 6-3 decision, which was rendered on Monday. They want deadlines for filings that would extend into September, and also asked a halt in months-long arguments over how sensitive papers in the case should be handled under the Classified Information Procedures Act.

The 10-page filing on Friday also seizes on the concurring opinion by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas, who wrote that lower federal courts should closely examine the validity of the appointments of special counsels such as Smith. It was a timely opinion that squares neatly with Trump’s argument that Smith’s appointment was illegal because he was not confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The issue was the subject of two days of hearing before Cannon in late June. She has yet to rule.

“Resolution of these threshold questions is necessary to minimize the adverse consequences to the institution of the Presidency arising from this unconstitutional investigation and prosecution,” wrote Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Christopher Kise.

Trump faces 40 counts of improperly handling classified documents and then obstructing government efforts to retrieve them Two of his employees, Waltine Nauta, a personal valet, and Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago property manager, are accused of assisting the former president in his efforts. All three have pleaded not guilty.

The former president’s lawyers already have succeeded in leveraging the Supreme Court ruling to delay Trump’s sentencing for his conviction in a New York State court for falsifying business records in the so-called “hush money” case. New York State Justice Juan Merchan has agreed to consider a defense motion to overturn the verdict and rule by Sept. 6. If necessary, sentencing would be rendered Sept. 18.

In their filing, Blanche and Kise told Cannon they “conferred in a good faith effort to resolve the issues herein, but were unable to do so with respect to President Trump’s stay motion.”

They said Smith’s office requested that the defense include the following statement in the filing “The Government objects to a stay and requests an opportunity to respond to any stay motion within the time the Local Rules provide.”

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