Trump team to appear in Florida court to argue for dismissal of Mar-a-Lago docs case

On Thursday morning, Trump arrived at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida for a hearing on the Mar-a-Lago docs case, where his attorneys are expected to argue for the federal judge to dismiss the case brought forth by special counsel Jack Smith.

According to CBS News, Judge Aileen Cannon is set to hear two arguments brought by the team. One argument is that Trump is shielded from prosecution through a federal recordkeeping law, while the other is that one of the charges brought forth against Trump under the Espionage Act brings forward numerous open legal questions.

Trump was charged with 32 counts of unlawfully retaining classified government records, with Smith claiming that the former president unlawfully retained the documents that were found in a raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2022. Trump and his team have argued that under the Presidential Records Act, he had the right to retain the documents in question.

Trump and two aides are also accused of constructing a plan to obstruct investigations into the matter. All three have pleaded not guilty.

In one motion to dismiss filed in late February, Trump argued that the case should be thrown out because in his time as president, he had "unreviewable discretion" to make documents personal in nature, with his attorneys stating that the Presidential Records Act "preclude[d] judicial review" over his record keeping. 

"President Trump was still the President of the United States when, for example, many of the documents at issue were packed (presumably by the GSA), transported, and delivered to Mar-A-Lago," Trump's team argued in its filing. 

Smith wrote in a filing that the argument was "wrong," telling Cannon that the records Trump is accused of retaining "are indisputably presidential, not personal."

After he left office, "Trump was not authorized to possess classified records at all (let alone at unsecured locations at Mar-a-Lago, as the Superseding Indictment alleges)," prosecutors wrote. 

"The PRA 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." 

In regards to the second motion being considered on Thursday, Trump’s team stated that there are many open legal questions about the Espionage Act, which Trump has been accused of violating.

These unanswered questions, the team argued, amount to an unconstitutional vagueness.

Smith wrote in response, "Trump's vagueness argument is meritless. Trump is charged with the unauthorized possession and willful retention of national defense information. The statute's prohibitions are clear."