Cannon weighs arguments over tossing evidence in classified docs case – Washington Examiner

Judge Aileen Cannon appeared skeptical on Tuesday at a hearing of Donald Trump‘s arguments that key evidence in the classified documents case against the former president should be tossed out.

Cannon listened as Trump’s attorneys argued that Department of Justice prosecutors misled a magistrate judge when they requested authorization for a search warrant to obtain the evidence. The FBI executed the warrant in August 2022 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, where agents obtained boxes full of documents, including some with classified markings.

Trump’s attorneys had asked Cannon for a Frank’s hearing, a proceeding that would allow for a review of whether the DOJ used misleading warrant documents.

Cannon designated Tuesday’s hearing, which came at the end of a three-day marathon of proceedings in the Florida courtroom, to listen to arguments from Trump’s attorneys about how they believed the Mar-a-Lago search violated the former president’s constitutional rights and how a Frank’s hearing was warranted.

Trump attorney Emil Bove said part of the issue with the warrant was that it was too broad and had allowed investigators to search for more than what was necessary, according to CNN.

“I have a hard time seeing what more needed to be included” on the warrant documents, Cannon responded to Bove.

When Bove argued that investigators should not have been permitted to search Trump’s massive estate in its entirety, Cannon replied, “What’s your point? It’s a property,” according to Fox News.

While Cannon seemed poised to side with prosecutors on Trump’s requests to invalidate evidence obtained through the search warrant, she seemed more sympathetic to Trump’s other arguments, which his attorneys made in hearings during the two prior days.

In one of those hearings, special counsel Jack Smith urged Cannon to impose speech restrictions on Trump, but the judge scrutinized the request. Cannon said she needed more evidence of a connection between Trump’s speech and threats being made to Trump’s targets, and she gave prosecutors an opportunity to follow up with additional evidence by Wednesday if they had any and wanted to.

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In another hearing, she gave unexpectedly thorough consideration to Trump’s argument that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unlawful. Legal experts critical of Cannon have argued the hearing was unnecessary because disputes about special counsels have been thoroughly sorted out by other courts already.

Cannon did not issue any rulings on the various arguments she has heard over the last three days in Trump’s case from the bench. The judge is now expected to issue written orders on them, which could come at any time.