Donald Trump Likely to Face Legal Disappointment: Legal Analyst

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Former President Donald Trump may face legal disappointment on Thursday as he seeks to have federal charges relating to his handling of classified documents dismissed, a legal analyst said.

Jonathan Turley, a legal analyst and law professor at George Washington University, appeared on Fox News' America's Newsroom and was asked about Trump's arguments to have charges dismissed.

"I'm afraid I think he is likely to lose this claim for dismissal, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have some merit in his objections to these charges," Turley said.

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally at the Forum River Center on March 9 in Rome, Georgia. On March 14, Trump will appear in a Florida court to argue... Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Turley went on to discuss how Trump's hearing will "resonate" loudly due to the timing, as it comes just a few days after former Special Counsel Robert Hur appeared before Congress to testify on his investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents. Hur ultimately ruled that Biden should not face charges, citing his memory and the way he'd present himself to a jury.

Turley called Biden's case "remarkably strong" but noted that Hur "just sort of shrugged and said, 'Well, we probably couldn't secure a conviction in D.C.'"

The Context

Trump is expected to appear before Judge Aileen Cannon as his legal team filed two motions to have some charges filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith dismissed.

Trump was charged with 40 felony counts related to retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach following his presidency and of subsequent attempts to hide them from authorities after being asked to return them. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has maintained his innocence.

What We Know

Trump's legal team plans to use the Presidential Records Act in their dismissal arguments, claiming that the former president had authority to retain classified documents under the act following his time in office.

In a recent filing, Smith's team said that the Presidential Records Act "does not exempt Trump from the criminal law, entitle him to unilaterally declare highly classified presidential records to be personal records, or shield him from criminal investigations, let alone allow him to obstruct a federal investigation with impunity," the Associated Press reported.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.

Views

Trump's lawyers have said that the National Archives did not have authority to demand the documents back from Trump because they were designated as personal under the Presidential Records Act.

"As such, President Trump's possession of those records was not unauthorized," Trump's lawyers said, according to the Washington Post.

However, Jason R. Baron, the former director of litigation at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, told the Washington Post: "The argument that merely by transferring boxes to Mar-a-Lago converts the legal status of their contents from presidential records to personal is absurd."