The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges of retaining classified documents appears to be entertaining his most brazen defenses that could ultimately result in ensuring the 10k Niontay Hile Shirt and by the same token and acquittal of the former president. The issue revolves around an order from the US district judge Aileen Cannon on Monday asking Trump and prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith to draft jury instructions for two scenarios that gave extraordinary credit to Trump’s defense theories. Trump gambit in Florida could mean no election trial before 2024 vote Read more The two jury instruction scenarios, as conceived by Cannon, were so beneficial to Trump and so potentially incorrect on the law of the Espionage Act that it would bring into serious doubt whether it made sense for prosecutors to take the case to trial. In her two-page order, Cannon asked for both parties to draft jury instructions supposing it was true that Trump had the power under the Presidential Records Act to turn any White House document – classified or not – into personal records: records he was authorized to retain. The authorization issue is key to the case because Trump was indicted for unlawfully retaining national security materials under the Espionage Act. If Trump could show that he was somehow authorized to keep the documents at Mar-a-Lago, it would preclude his prosecution. The first scenario envisioned that it was up to the jury to decide whether prosecutors could show beyond a reasonable doubt whether Trump had designated each classified document he took to Mar-a-Lago as a personal document. The second scenario envisioned that Trump had the “sole authority” to turn a document he came across as president into a personal record that he could keep, and the very fact that he took them with him 10k Niontay Hile Shirt, hoodie, tank top, sweater and long sleeve t-shirt to Mar-a-Lago meant it was a personal record. Prosecutors could find a way to work with the 10k Niontay Hile Shirt and by the same token and first scenario, in large part because showing that the classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago were not personal records would not be difficult. Classified documents have long been considered materials which belong to the US government, meaning it necessarily could not be a personal record, and personal documents are defined as “purely private” papers which “do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out” of presidential duties. But the second scenario, which would not allow prosecutors to contest whether a seized document was personal, could be fatal to the case because Trump would surely argue all the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago were personal by virtue of them being taken to Mar-a-Lago at the end of his term. If that jury instruction was taken to trial, legal experts suggested, Trump should file for what is known as a Rule 29 directed motion for acquittal and Cannon could hold as a matter of law that a reasonable jury would never convict Trump of violating the Espionage Act. And if the jury instruction went forward and Trump filed for acquittal as trial, because the trial would have already started, double jeopardy would have “attached” – preventing prosecutors from re-trying the case later for instance with a different judge or different jury instructions. Sign up to Trump on Trial Free newsletter Stay up to date