Trump Indictment Paragraph Removed; Charges Stand

Trump Indictment Paragraph Removed but Charges Stand

- The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump and two of his associates struck a paragraph from the indictment on Monday but denied a defense request to dismiss some of the charges. - The paragraph concerns allegations that Trump, in 2021 and while no longer president, showed a classified map of a foreign country to a representative of his political action committee while discussing a military operation that he said was not going well. - Defense lawyers said the paragraph was prejudicial because it was not connected to any crime charged in the indictment, which accuses Trump of illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Cannon's Ruling

- U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday agreed that the inclusion of the language in the indictment was “not appropriate.” - The ruling has minimal practical effect on the case since Cannon left the rest of the indictment intact, denying in her 14-page order a request to dismiss any of the actual charges. - Yet even as she rejected the defense bid to toss multiple counts, she chided special counsel Jack Smith's team for having included in the indictment language that she said was “legally unnecessary to serve the function of an indictment” and for creating “arguable confusion” in some of the wording.

Legal Challenges and Delays

- The motion to dismiss the counts is one of multiple pretrial requests and disputes that for months have piled up before Cannon, snarling the progress of the case and prompting the judge last month to indefinitely postpone a trial that had been set for May 20 in Fort Pierce, Fla. - She has scheduled additional arguments for later this month, including on a Trump challenge to the legality and funding of the Justice Department's appointment of Smith as special counsel last year. - The delays in the case are all the more startling given that many legal experts had seen the classified documents prosecution as exceedingly straightforward in its allegations that Trump illegally hoarded classified documents from his presidency at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., and obstructed FBI efforts to get them back.