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Donald Trump is using twisted logic in an attempt to escape his classified documents case in Florida, a former federal prosecutor said.
Joyce Vance, a liberal-leaning critic of the former president, wrote in her blog, Civil Discourse, on February 27 that Trump is misleading the public about the criminal case against him.
Trump is trying to have the case dismissed, based on the Presidential Records Act that calls for a lawsuit, rather than a criminal case, to recover records from a former president. It's one of 10 motions Trump's lawyers filed to Judge Aileen Cannon on Friday.
"While these motions may not be entirely frivolous, there are some arguments that are perilously close to the line," Vance wrote on Tuesday.
Trump is facing 40 federal charges over allegations he retained classified papers after leaving the White House in January 2021 and then obstructed efforts by authorities to have them returned.
In August 2022, Trump's Mar-a-Lago private members club was raided by federal agents who recovered classified documents. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and strongly denies any wrongdoing. He is the front-runner for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential race. His two co-accused, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, have also pleaded not guilty.
Newsweek sought email comment from Trump's attorney on Tuesday.
Vance wrote that Trump has been promoting his Presidential Records Act argument on the campaign trail for months.
"[Trump] argues that the only remedy for a violation of the Presidential Records Act is a civil one, designed to reclaim [the records], but that provision applies to actual presidential records, not the classified material Trump is trying to shield behind his pretzel logic about how these rules work," she wrote.
"The only one who wins if Judge Cannon adopts Trump's interpretation of these laws is Trump. America loses. Trump never confronts the highly sensitive nature of these materials."
Vance also said Trump is claiming that the Presidential Records Act allows him to take personal items from the White House and that the raid on Mar-a-Lago was unlawful.
"Under Trump's interpretation of the law, he could declassify the nuclear codes without telling anyone, claim they're his records, and share them with hostile foreign powers, terrorists, or whomever the highest bidder happens to be. Legal rulings have consequences," Vance wrote.
In a separate filing to Cannon on Thursday, Trump's lawyers complained that there has never been a prosecution of a president in more than 200 years of American history.
Their submission also says that many previous presidents have been accused of crimes, yet were never prosecuted. These included President George W. Bush's war in Iraq, which cost "thousands of lives," the submission says, as well as President Barack Obama's drone attack on an American citizen and President Joe Biden's funding of a United Nations agency whose employees were allegedly involved in Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more