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Special counsel Jack Smith made a "mistake" when he charged former President Donald Trump in the classified documents case in Florida and not Washington, D.C., a legal expert has said.
Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe suggested that the decision from Smith's office not to indict the former president in the nation's capital may prove costly for the federal prosecutor due to decisions being made by Aileen Cannon, the Florida judge assigned to the case.
Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, has faced frequent criticism from some experts for her rulings during proceedings which could beneficial to the former president. This includes her recent decision to indefinitely postpone the federal trial until multiple legal arguments and hearings are concluded first, meaning the trial is almost certain not to take place prior to the 2024 presidential election.
Tribe suggested the issues surrounding Cannon could have been avoided if Smith opted to charge Trump in D.C. rather than Florida.
"Of course charging this case in Florida rather than DC was a mistake. Many of us argued that at the time, publicly and privately," Tribe wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
"Fears of a fight over venue were understandable but never justified the risk Smith took that he'd draw a judge like Cannon."
The delay in the federal classified documents case could prove vital for Trump. If the presumptive Republican 2024 candidate wins the race against President Joe Biden in November, he could order the Department of Justice to drop the charges once he enters office next year.
A spokesperson for Smith's office declined to comment when contacted by Newsweek.
It was believed last year that Smith could charge Trump in the case in Washington, D.C., where the DOJ is located and where Trump is accused of illegally taking sensitive materials from the White House in January 2021. A federal grand jury which looked into the criminal allegations involving Trump also convened in the capital in 2023.
However, Smith opted to charge Trump in Florida, where he is accused of hoarding the classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach and attempting to obstruct the federal attempt to retrieve them.
The move was believed to be an attempt to prevent Trump's lawyers from arguing that the charges were filed in the wrong place, or that the former president would not be able to get a fair jury in the district where he received just five percent of the vote in 2020.
Tribe also shared a Raw Story article detailing a CNN report suggesting Smith's decision to charge Trump in Florida may prove a "fateful" one for the special counsel.
The CNN report noted that if the charges were filed in D.C., then another judge assigned to the federal trial could have already made a decision on a number of arguments which have moved slowly through Cannon, prompting the trial's indefinite delay.
One argument awaiting a ruling is whether conversations the former president's had with his ex-attorney Evan Corcoran, who was present at Mar-a-Lago during the FBI search for sensitive materials in August 2022, could be dismissed as evidence while citing attorney-client privilege.
In March 2023, D.C. District Judge Beryl Howell rejected this argument on the basis the normally absolute privilege cannot be cited if the conversations are allegedly attempting to cover up or engage in a crime, and ordered Corcoran to testify in front of the grand jury.
Bradley P. Moss, a lawyer who specializes in national security, told CNN that Howell's ruling should have given Cannon a "clear path" on how to consider the attorney-client privilege issues argument.
"That she continues to sit on the matter is inexcusable," Moss told the network.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 federal charges over allegations he illegally hoarded classified materials after he left office in January 2021, and then obstructed a federal attempt to retrieve them. He has continually said that this case and other criminal and civil matters he is facing are politically motivated.
It is unclear when Cannon will attempt to reschedule the federal trial involving the former president.
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About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more