Judge denies one dismissal claim in Trump classified documents case

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday attended a court hearing in Florida where Judge Aileen Cannon considered his lawyers’ arguments for dismissing the charges against him.

Why are they asking for the charges to be dismissed? Trump’s lawyers last month filed motions to dismiss based on presidential immunity, unconstitutional vagueness, and the Presidential Records Act. Thursday’s hearing focused on the latter two claims. Cannon reportedly denied his motion to dismiss the charges due to their alleged “unconstitutional vagueness.”

What’s going on with Trump’s other cases? Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office on Thursday said in a court filing it would not oppose a 30-day delay in the start date for Trump’s New York hush-money case so the defense had more time to examine tens of thousands more pages of documents. The case had been scheduled to begin in less than two weeks.

Meanwhile, prosecutors and defense lawyers alike on Thursday were awaiting Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will be allowed to remain on her office’s prosecution of Trump for allegedly seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. McAfee said at the end of a hearing almost two weeks ago that he hoped to have a decision on the matter in roughly two weeks’ time.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about the arguments for and against Willis’ dismissal two weeks ago.