DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

CNN —Months before Donald Trump was indicted for mishandling classified documents, a federal judge said that investigators had “strong evidence” that the former president “intended” to hide classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, according to newly released court documents. Judge Beryl Howell cited, among other things, the discovery of additional classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago months after the FBI’s search of the property in the summer of 2022. The ruling was among hundreds of pages of previously sealed filings that were publicly docketed Tuesday in the criminal classified documents case against Trump. Nauta has been charged alongside Trump and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira in the case, facing charges of mishandling sensitive or classified materials and obstruction. The case against Trump, brought last summer, is currently in front of Judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Persons: Donald Trump, “, Beryl Howell, ” Howell, Walt Nauta, Nauta, Carlos De Oliveira, –, Trump, Aileen Cannon, Cannon, Judge, Evan Corcoran, Howell’s, Corcoran, Howell, Barack Obama, ”, Donald Trump’s Mar, US Department of Justice Corcoran, Trump “ Organizations: CNN, Trump, Prosecutors, Mar, US Department of Justice, National Archives, Lago FBI Locations: Lago, Mar, Fort Pierce , Florida, South Florida, Palm Beach , Florida, Florida, Corcoran

☆ A Trump judge and Biden’s Justice Department agree that a Texas map is illegal. But that doesn’t mean it will change
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —A county redistricting plan in Texas that a Donald Trump-appointed judge deemed “a clear violation” of the Voting Rights Act is back before a notoriously conservative appeals court. After the 2021 Census, the Republican-led county commission broke up that district, locking in four majority-white districts instead. Their opponents argue that Congress did not intend for multiple “classes” of minorities to be considered together when assessing a map’s Voting Rights Act compliance. Black and Latino voices ‘extinguished,’ judge saysThe 2021 map split up the long-established Precinct 3, spreading those minority voters across the four total commission precincts. “It would be devastating for minority voters as devastating as it was for Galveston’s Black and Latino voters.”

Persons: Donald Trump, Biden, Jeffrey Vincent Brown, –, ”, Valencia Richardson, Christian Adams, ‘, ” Brown, Brown, Mark Henry –, Henry, Robin Armstrong, Armstrong, Adams, Circuit “, Elena Kagan, …, ” Chad Ennis –, ” Ennis, Hilary Harris Klein Organizations: CNN, Republican, 5th, Campaign, “, Senate, Justice Department, Galveston Republicans, Interest Legal Foundation, Circuit, Southern Coalition for Social Justice Locations: Texas, Galveston’s County, Galveston County, White, Galveston, Louisiana, Mississippi, ”

☆ Steve Bannon: DOJ asks federal judge to start former Trump adviser’s prison sentence
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Tierney Sneed | Casey Gannon | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon should begin serving a four-month prison sentence now that a federal appeals court has upheld his contempt-of-Congress conviction, the Justice Department told a federal judge Tuesday. US District Judge Carl Nichols, who presided over Bannon’s trial, had paused Bannon’s sentence while an appeal of his conviction played out. He has given Bannon until Thursday to respond to the DOJ’s request. Circuit rejected defendant’s appeal on all grounds, including the primary argument on appeal: the requisite mental state required for a contempt of Congress violation,” the Justice Department wrote. The timing of when Bannon will be expected to report to prison is still unclear.

Persons: Steve Bannon, Carl Nichols, Bannon Organizations: CNN, Trump, Justice Department, Capitol, The Justice Department, Congress

☆ Federal appeals court upholds Steve Bannon’s contempt-of-Congress conviction
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

CNN —A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the contempt-of-Congress conviction of Steve Bannon, the ex-adviser to former President Donald Trump who was found guilty after failing to comply with a subpoena from the House January 6 committee. The US DC Circuit Court of Appeals rejected several challenges Bannon made to the case, including his claim that the trial court excluded evidence he should have been allowed to put before the jury in his defense. This story is breaking and will be updated.

Persons: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, Bannon Organizations: CNN, US DC Circuit

At issue is a map drawn by state lawmakers that included a second majority African American district in Louisiana’s six-district congressional plan. The Supreme Court’s intervention, the groups argued Wednesday, “is needed to ensure that harm is not repeated.”The Supreme Court could allow the newly drawn congressional districts to be used in this year’s election. Throughout the process, Republican lawmakers suggested in public statements that a primary motivation was to adhere to court orders and draw a second majority Black district. The Supreme Court is already weighing a separate equal protection challenge over South Carolina’s congressional maps. Given the delay in the Supreme Court issuing its decision, the lower court has ruled that the 2024 elections can proceed under the map it previously deemed unconstitutional.

Persons: “, ”, –, Allen, Milligan, Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise, doesn’t, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Taiwan Scott Organizations: CNN, Civil, Court, White, Republicans, African American, ”, GOP, Supreme, Supreme Court, Republican, South, South Carolina State Conference of, NAACP, American Locations: Black, Louisiana, Louisiana’s, Alabama, Shreveport, Baton Rouge, Taiwan, South Carolina

CNN —Judge Aileen Cannon has indefinitely postponed former President Donald Trump’s classified documents trial in Florida, citing significant issues around classified evidence that would need to be worked out before the federal criminal case goes to a jury. In an order Tuesday, Cannon cancelled the May trial date and did not set a new date. By indefinitely postponing the classified documents trial, Cannon’s order pushes it closer to the 2024 election – and potentially afterward. Although Trump’s attorneys have continuously asserted in court filings that a pre-election trial would be “unfair.”The further delayed trial also could put Trump’s two federal cases on a collision course. Trump is charged in the Florida case with mishandling classified documents and with working with two co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation.

Persons: Aileen Cannon, Donald Trump’s, Cannon, Trump, Cannon’s, Jack Smith’s, Trump’s, Walt Nauta, Carlos De Oliveira, Department’s, Biden, Smith, Joe Biden’s Organizations: CNN, Trump Locations: Florida, New York, Washington, DC

Nauta testified to a grand jury two months before the August 2022 search about boxes he took from Mar-a-Lago’s storage room in January 2022. Nauta grand jury testimony could be used at trial against TrumpThe newly unredacted Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit and Nauta’s grand jury testimony were included in court filings as part of several challenges Trump and Nauta are making against Smith’s case. 03:33 - Source: CNNNauta’s grand jury testimony could become a notable part of an eventual trial against Trump. Even if Nauta refuses to testify, prosecutors could seek to use his grand jury statements about Trump in their presentation to a jury. According to the affidavit, the Justice Department sought from the Trump Organization Mar-a-Lago’s surveillance footage in the immediate days after Nauta’s grand jury testimony.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Trump, Walt Nauta, Nauta, ” Nauta, Jack Smith, Carlos De Oliveira, vindictively, Lago, FPOTUS, ”, Stanley Woodward, Aileen Cannon, pushback, CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz Organizations: CNN, National Archives, Mar, FBI, Trump, Archives, Justice Department, Trump White House, NARA, Trump Organization, US Locations: Lago, Florida, Mar, Nauta, United States

United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Alex Wong/Getty ImagesJustice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned that absolute immunity could turn the Oval Office into "the seat of criminal activity in this country." She said there would no incentive for presidents to follow the law while in the White House if they could never face criminal prosecution. "There are lots of people who have to make life and death decisions" and still face the risk of criminal prosecution, she said. I think that we would have a really significant opposite problem if the president wasn’t chilled," she said.

Persons: Ketanji Brown Jackson, Alex Wong, Donald Trump's, D, John Sauer, Jackson Organizations: Getty

Trump himself has continued to lobby for absolute immunity, including before his appearance at a New York court where he’s on trial for business fraud. Dreeben told Barrett that the indictment against Trump is substantially about private conduct, meaning that a trial could proceed even if the Supreme Court finds some immunity for Trump’s official actions. Liberal justices weren’t impressed with Trump’s absolute immunity claimsIt was pretty clear where the court’s three liberals will be when the opinion lands. With arguments over, focus shifts to timing for decisionThe arguments about Trump’s immunity claim are over. In the immunity case, the court already helped Trump by denying the special counsel request last December to leapfrog the appeals court and resolve the question quickly.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Jack Smith carte, Trump, John Roberts, Roberts, didn’t, he’s, ” Roberts, skeptically, ” Trump, John Sauer, Sauer, Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Elena Kagan, Brad Raffensperger, Raffensperger, ”, Justice Barrett, Barrett –, Barrett, Smith, ” Barrett, Michael Dreeben, Dreeben, weren’t, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Kagan, “, that’s, ” Kagan, Jackson, ” Jackson, “ I’m, Alito, they’d, ” Alito, ’, Ty Cobb, Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Richard Nixon, Gore, Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand Organizations: CNN, Trump, Appeals, DC Circuit, Georgia, Republican National Committee, Arizona, Justice Department, Trump isn’t Locations: New York, Arizona, Michigan , Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Washington

Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Joshua Turner, the lawyer for the state of Idaho, about specific, real-life scenarios where pregnant people required emergency abortions. Later, she returned to the hospital, Sotomayor said, and received an abortion "because she was about to die." Pregnancy can be dangerous, particularly in the United States, which has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the developed world. About 10% to 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage and many don’t require medical intervention, but some may require treatment using the same procedure used in an abortion. Miscarriages can put someone’s life at risk because of serious blood loss or infection if the miscarriage is not complete.

Persons: Sonia Sotomayor, Joshua Turner, Sotomayor Organizations: American College of Obstetricians, American Locations: Idaho, Florida, United States

☆ Takeaways from the Supreme Court’s oral arguments over emergency abortions
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Tierney Sneed | John Fritze | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

The court’s far-right wing, perhaps in an attempt to keep those two justices on their side, framed the case as a federal overreach into state power. Turner, Idaho’s attorney, shot back that mental health could essentially open a loophole. Conservatives have long opposed allowing exceptions to strict abortion bans for mental health. Justice Samuel Alito, a fellow conservative, picked up on that same theme, repeatedly pressing Prelogar to explain whether the Justice Department views mental health as a way around Idaho’s abortion ban. That is exactly the kind of political influence that the Supreme Court, especially under Roberts, has generally tried to avoid.

Persons: Biden, Elizabeth Prelogar, Roe, Wade, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, Prelogar, ” Prelogar, “, Roberts, Barrett –, Barrett, teed, Joshua Turner, Sonia Sotomayor, Turner, Elena Kagan, ’, Alito, CNN Sotomayor, ”, Clarence Thomas, EMTALA, Neil Gorsuch, ‘, Samuel Alito, ” Alito, –, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Trump, – Gorsuch, Kavanaugh Organizations: CNN, Justice, Labor, Liberal, Republican, Supreme, Department, Wade, Idaho, energizing Democratic, Food and Drug Administration, GOP Locations: Idaho, Wisconsin

☆ Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar again in the spotlight fighting the conservative Supreme Court on abortion
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —For the fourth time since she became the federal government’s top Supreme Court advocate, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar is arguing an abortion-related case. When Prelogar argues before the Supreme Court, she is arguing in front of several alumni of the US Office of the Solicitor General. She also clerked for her current boss, Attorney General Merrick Garland, when he was a DC Circuit judge, before her Supreme Court clerkships. She went on to litigate Supreme Court cases for private firms and worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Likewise, the abortion case Prelogar argued last month could have significant consequences for federal power.

Persons: Elizabeth Prelogar, Prelogar, Department’s, Biden, ”, Stephanie Toti, she’s, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Kagan, Obama, John Roberts, George H.W, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Roe, ” Prelogar, General Merrick Garland, Robert Mueller’s, Beth Brinkmann, Clinton, Brinkmann, Prelogar’s, Court’s Roe, Wade, –, Roberts, Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, ” Toti, “ That’s Organizations: CNN, Miss Idaho, NPR, Emory University, Harvard Law School, DC Circuit, litigate, The Justice Department, Idaho, Labor, Center for Reproductive Rights, Food and Drug Administration, Justice Department, Republican Locations: Bush, Texas, ” An Idaho, Idaho

☆ Abortion rights: State bans, Supreme Court case and Biden’s Florida dream
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Zachary B. Wolf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The new Florida law has limited exemptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother. In the electionPresident Joe Biden visited Florida to focus on abortion rights Tuesday. Referendums placing the issue of abortion rights before voters will be on the ballot in Arizona and Florida. New realityIt is the cases currently before the Supreme Court that could have the most direct effect on the new reality for pregnant American women. Cox fled Texas to obtain an abortion just before the state Supreme Court denied her access to the care under the medical exemption in Texas’ abortion law.

Persons: Roe, Wade, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, CNN’s Edward, Isaac Dovere, Donald Trump, Wade . Biden, Harris, Trump, CNN’s Tierney Sneed, “, Read, Jen Adkins, Adkins, CNN’s Meg Tirrell, John Bonifield, Julie Lyons, who’s, ” Lyons, Allie Phillips, Dobbs, Amanda Zurawski, Trump’s, Jill Biden, Kate Cox, Cox, CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, Michael Williams, Dale Mabry, Biden, Joe Raedle, Dovere, he’s, ”, Court’s Dobbs Organizations: CNN —, Senate, Biden, CNN, Jackson, Health, Hillsborough Community, Republican, ” Locations: Florida, Arizona, Florida ., Idaho, Sneed, Portland , Oregon, Hailey, Sun Valley, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Florida , Arizona, year’s State, Tampa , Florida

☆ Trump co-defendant in classified documents case was told he’d be pardoned in a second term, notes in FBI interview say
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Tierney Sneed | Holmes Lybrand | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

It’s not clear how the witness came to know of the alleged offer of a pardon. The FBI’s interview summary said Person 16 had not spoken to Nauta since Trump was in the White House. During a November 2021 visit, the witness told Trump to give “whatever” he had back to the National Archives, according to the interview summary, which is known as a FD-302. Don’t give them a noble reason to indict you, because they will,” the witness told Trump, according to the witness’ account. The FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago to recover classified material in August 2022.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Walt Nauta, –, Nauta, Jack Smith, It’s, Trump, “ NAUTA, FPOTUS, ’, ”, Trump’s Organizations: CNN, FBI, Trump, National Archives Locations: United States, Lago, Florida, Mar

☆ Judge rejects efforts by Trump’s co-defendants to get obstruction charges tossed in classified documents case
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Tierney Sneed | Hannah Rabinowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Special counsel Jack Smith’s obstruction case in the classified documents prosecution survived an early test, with a federal judge on Thursday denying several bids by Donald Trump’s co-defendants to dismiss charges against them. Judge Aileen Cannon rejected efforts by Trump’s co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira to toss obstruction charges they faced. Nauta works as Trump’s personal valet, and De Oliveira has worked as property manager at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago estate. The Florida judge still has yet to decide several motions by Trump to toss charges against him in connection with allegedly mishandling classified documents and attempting to thwart the Justice Department’s investigation. Attorneys for De Oliveira argued that the obstruction charges he faced should be dismissed because he was not aware of the grand jury subpoenas issued for classified documents kept at Mar-a-Lago when he allegedly moved boxes around the resort.

Persons: Jack Smith’s, Donald Trump’s, Aileen Cannon, Trump’s, Walt Nauta, Carlos De Oliveira, De Oliveira, Trump, Department’s, Cannon, Nauta’s, De Organizations: CNN, Florida, Mar, Trump Locations: Lago, Florida

The high court’s ruling could also affect the federal election subversion criminal case pending against former President Donald Trump, who was also charged with the obstruction crime. The law, Justice Elena Kagan said, could have been written by Congress to limit its prohibition to evidence tampering. Unless the court rules broadly in a way that undermines the charge entirely, the case against Trump may still stick even if Fischer wins his case. The Fischer case has prompted some liberal critics of the court to demand that Thomas recuse himself. “There have been many violent protests that have interfered with proceedings,” Thomas asked Prelogar, pressing on a theme he returned to repeatedly during the arguments.

Persons: Critics, ”, Donald Trump, Joseph Fischer, Trump, “, Fischer, Brett Kavanaugh, Elizabeth Prelogar, John Roberts, ’ ” Roberts, it’s, Prelogar, Kavanaugh, ‘, ” Prelogar, Neil Gorsuch, Jamaal Bowman, Bowman, Samuel Alito, ” Alito, rioter, Elena Kagan, ” Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Jeffrey Green, Jackson, Jack Smith, Department’s, Smith, Clarence Thomas, Thomas, That’s, Thomas ’, Ginni Thomas, ” Thomas, “ I’m Organizations: CNN, Justice Department, Justice, Capitol, Court, Department, Riot, ”, New York Democrat, House, Hamas, Trump Locations: Pennsylvania, Gaza, Virginia, DC, Colorado, ”

☆ FBI interview transcript reveals how Trump aide characterized boxes at Mar-a-Lago to investigators
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Tierney Sneed | Holmes Lybrand | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The transcript of an FBI interview made public late Thursday details how an aide to former President Donald Trump characterized the boxes of sensitive documents that are now at the center of the special counsel’s case into the mishandling of classified documents from the Trump White House. For much of the May 2022 interview, Nauta describes the layout of Mar-a-Lago, what he claimed to know about where boxes of Trump’s items from the White House were stored and his assessment of what was in the boxes. Nauta has been charged with conspiring to conceal documents as well as lying to the FBI in his interview about the location and movement of boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago. According to the transcript, investigators at one point in the interview ask Nauta whether he was aware of Trump showing a document with classified markings to people while on a plane. So that’s kind of the reason why we’re looking into this.”Nauta denied telling Trump that he was sitting for the interview, and according to the transcript, Nauta said he told Trump that he was going for a run.

Persons: Donald Trump, Walt Nauta, Nauta, Trump, Aileen Cannon, Jack Smith’s, we’ve, ” Nauta Organizations: CNN, FBI, Trump White House, Mar, Trump

☆ GOP leaders pursue new lawsuits over 2024 election rules – including attacking methods of voting they want supporters to use
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Fredreka Schouten | Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

“What he has said is that we would like ultimately there to only be voting on Election Day. Republican attorneys have filed an assortment of lawsuits across the county that vary in both what types of election rules they target and how seriously election law experts believe the case should be taken. The legal fight against mail voting has taken GOP lawyers to states beyond the typical presidential battlegrounds. In addition to the case targeting Mississippi’s post-election day mail ballot receipt deadline, Republicans filed a lawsuit challenging the major expansion of mail voting enacted by New York lawmakers last year. To arrive at the claim that the states’ voter rolls are bloated, Republicans are using a formula that has previously been rebuked in federal court.

Persons: Donald Trump, baselessly, Trump, Mike Johnson, “, ” Michael Whatley, that’s, ” Whatley, Whatley –, –, Rick Hasen, don’t, ” Hasen, Derek Muller, ” Muller, litigators don’t, ”, Justin Levitt, Muller, CNN’s Ariel Edwards, Levy, David Wright Organizations: CNN, Republican, Republican National Committee, Mississippi Republican Party, Magnolia, GOP, Republicans, Democrats, Trump, Trump’s, Fox News, Republican Party, RNC, University of Notre Dame, Fox, New, National Conference of State Legislatures, Pew Research Center, Democratic, Pew, The New, The New York City Council, Vermont, Loyola Law School, Biden White Locations: Magnolia State, Pennsylvania, Ohio , Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, “, California, Colorado, Hawaii , Nevada , Oregon , Utah , Vermont, Washington, Mississippi, New York, Michigan , Wisconsin , Ohio, Arizona, New York City, United States, The New York, – Nevada, Michigan, Nevada

CNN —Special counsel Jack Smith urged the Supreme Court on Monday to reject Donald Trump’s claims of sweeping immunity and to deny the former president any opportunity to delay a trial on charges that he attempted to subvert the results of the 2020 election. Trump’s position, Smith told the court, has no grounding in the Constitution, the nation’s history or Americans’ understanding that presidents are not above the law. Even if the Supreme Court finds that former presidents are entitled to some form of immunity, Smith asserted, at least some of Trump’s actions were private conduct – far removed from “official acts” – and could be prosecuted. The Supreme Court will hear arguments April 25, and a decision is expected by July. Instead, he said that if the Supreme Court finds that former presidents are entitled to some immunity, a trial could get underway focused on Trump’s private actions.

Persons: Jack Smith, Donald Trump’s, Smith, ” –, ” Smith, Trump’s, doesn’t, ” Trump, “, ”, Trump, – Organizations: CNN, Court, Trump, Supreme, DC Locations: “, ”

The ethics charges that were brought against Clark by the DC Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel allege that he was dishonest and attempted to interfere with the administration of justice after the 2020 election. An attorney for Clark at the trial attempted to highlight how Clark was working on the behalf of the then-president after the election. But several former higher-ranking Justice Department officials, including then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and then-Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, testified at the trial that Clark’s efforts within the DOJ were out of line. Clark brought lawsuits challenging the validity of the DC Bar’s disciplinary proceedings against him. Others who worked for Trump after the election are also facing attorney discipline consequences, with each at different stages.

Persons: Jeffrey Clark, Donald, Clark, Trump, Jeffrey Rosen, Richard Donoghue, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman Organizations: Washington CNN, Trump Justice Department, DC, DOJ, Trump, White, Former New York, disbarment, New Locations: Washington ,, Georgia, New York, California

CNN —Former President Donald Trump was dealt two major setbacks Thursday in his efforts to derail the criminal cases against him, with judges in the Georgia election interference case and in the federal classified documents case both rejecting bids by the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee to have those cases thrown out. Trump has made similar presidential immunity arguments in the Georgia case and in the classified documents case. She wrote that prosecutors “make no reference to the Presidential Records Act” in the indictment against Trump and did not “rely” on the statute to bring charges. McAfee’s ruling is the latest step inching the state racketeering case against Trump forward. McAfee’s refusal to scrap the indictment comes as the free speech defense has repeatedly fallen short in pretrial wrangling in election meddling cases.

Persons: Donald Trump, Fani Willis, Jack Smith, –, Trump, Aileen Cannon, “, Cannon, ”, Scott McAfee, Willis, ” McAfee, McAfee, Tanya Chutkan, Steve Sadow, Smith, Trump’s Organizations: CNN, Trump, White, Records, Presidential, Circuit, Peach State, McAfee, National Archives, Prosecutors Locations: Georgia, Fulton County, New York, York, Washington ,, Florida, Atlanta, Peach

☆ How legal fights and stalling by judge could push Trump documents trial after election
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Tierney Sneed | Hannah Rabinowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

The longer it takes for Cannon to decide these issues, the more likely a trial would need to wait until after the November presidential election. But Cannon’s critics view the pace of the Trump prosecution with added suspicion because of how she handled a separate, 2022 lawsuit Trump brought attacking the FBI’s documents investigation. In that lawsuit, Cannon granted an extraordinary Trump request for a third-party review of the FBI’s 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago resort for the classified documents. Now, critics accuse Cannon of – purposely or not – playing into Trump’s strategy of delaying the trial until after the election. Hours after the hearing, Cannon rejected Trump’s first claim, that the national defense law he is charged under was too vague.

Persons: Donald Trump, Aileen Cannon, Cannon, Prosecutors, Jack Smith, ”, Smith, Alan Rozenshtein, “, Trump, –, Barbara McQuade, Obama, ” McQuade, won’t, nudges, doesn’t, McQuade, Southern District of Florida Aileen Cannon, Lothar Speer Cannon, ” David Aaron, ” Aaron, Aaron, CIPA, they’re, that’s, Mark Schnapp, Trump’s, Rozenshtein, Cannon “, Judge Cannon’s Organizations: CNN, Trump, University of Minnesota Law School, Justice Department, Biden White, University of Michigan Law School, US, Court, Southern, Southern District of, DOJ, DOJ National Security, Presidential, National Archives, ” Prosecutors, White Locations: Southern District, Southern District of Florida, Florida

☆ ‘Maybe Texas went too far’ with immigration law, state lawyer tells federal court
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Devan Cole | Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —An attorney defending Texas’ controversial immigration law told a federal appeals court on Wednesday that state legislators may have gone “too far” when they passed the law last year. The law, known as SB4, makes entering Texas illegally a state crime and allows state judges to order immigrants to be deported. Nielson sought to downplay how sweeping the law was and argued it did not interfere with federal authority on immigration. An attorney for the Justice Department, which brought one of the lawsuits challenging the Texas statute, urged the appeals court not to depart from its previous ruling blocking the law. “Of course, we know that presidents come and go, and different administrations might very well enforce federal law differently,” he said, arguing that the law may not be necessary under a different presidential administration.

Persons: Aaron Nielson, Nielson, ” Nielson, Priscilla Richman, Nielson’s, Daniel Tenny, Judge Andrew Oldham, “, they’ve, ”, “ It’s, Biden, Richman Organizations: CNN, Texas, Texas Attorney, Justice Department, United States, US Locations: Texas, United States, United, El Paso County

☆ Special counsel blasts judge’s jury instruction request in Trump documents case
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Hannah Rabinowitz | Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

In an unusual order last month, Cannon asked attorneys on the classified documents case to submit briefs on potential jury instructions defining terms of the Espionage Act, under which Trump is charged over mishandling 32 classified records. Specifically, Cannon asked the special counsel and defense attorneys to write two versions of proposed jury instructions. Trump’s attorneys claim he did have that authority and have asked the judge to throw out the criminal charges. “Medical science has not yet devised an instrument which can record what was in one’s mind in the distant past,” Trump’s attorneys wrote. Cannon appeared skeptical that the charges should be outright dismissed during the hearing, but she said that Trump’s attorneys were making “forceful” arguments that may be appropriate to present to a trial jury.

Persons: Aileen Cannon, Donald Trump, Jack Smith, ” Smith’s, Cannon, Trump, ”, ’ Organizations: CNN, Presidential Records, White, ”, “, Prosecutors, Trump, National Archives, Mar Locations: Lago

☆ Texas federal court district rebuffs effort to curb ‘judge-shopping’ tactic
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Judge-shopping is the practice of strategically filing cases in courthouses where the lawsuits are almost guaranteed to be heard by judges perceived to be sympathetic to the litigants. Texas has other US district courts with single-judge divisions, in addition to Amarillo, where challenges to the Biden administration agenda are frequently funneled through. The Judicial Conference announced after an early March meeting that it was seeking to curb the practice of judge-shopping with the new case assignment policy. The announcement prompted blowback from Republican senators, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who argued that any mandated policy would run afoul of a statute passed by Congress that gives each district court the discretion to design its case assignment protocols. When the Judicial Conference released the formal guidance days later, it indicated that the districtwide assignment policy was recommended, but optional.

Persons: David Godbey, Chuck Schumer, Matthew Kacsmaryk, Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s, Kacsmaryk, Biden, George W, Bush, Schumer, Godbey, ”, “, ” Schumer, Mitch McConnell Organizations: CNN, US, Court, Northern, Northern District of, New, New York Democrat, Amarillo Division, Judicial Conference, Law360, Judicial, Congress Locations: Texas, Northern District, Northern District of Texas, New York, Northern Texas, Amarillo, “

Search resuls for: "Sneed"

25 mentions found