Highlights from Trump's classified documents hearing after Judge Cannon denies a dismissal request

Shortly after Cannon denied one of his motions to dismiss the classified documents case against him, Trump took to Truth Social tonight to criticize the district attorney prosecuting him in a separate matter.

Trump said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg "illegally withheld thousands of pages of documents."

"The things that took place at the Manhattan D.A.’s office, in conjunction with people from the DOJ put in charge of 'getting TRUMP,' are truly a sight to behold," he wrote tonight.

Only hours after arguments concluded, the judge issued an order denying Trump's request that the charges be dismissed based on "unconstitutional vagueness." But she left open the possibility that she could side with Trump in the future.

She didn't rule on Trump's arguments about the Presidential Records Act — but she seemed skeptical of that argument during the hearing today.

A Trump campaign spokesperson reiterated the former president's insistence that the hush money case should be dismissed after the Manhattan DA said he doesn’t oppose Trump’s request to delay the trial.

“President Trump and his counsel have been consistent and steadfast that this case has no basis in law or fact, and should be dismissed," Steven Cheung said in a statement.

"We will continue to fight to end this Hoax, and all of the other Crooked Joe Biden-directed Witch Hunts, once and for all,” he added.

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said his office doesn’t oppose delaying the start of the trial for 30 days. Trump had requested a 90-day delay in the trial.

Peter Navarro, a Donald Trump adviser sentenced to four months in federal prison this year following his conviction for defying the Jan. 6 committee, must report to federal prison in Miami next week after a panel of federal appeals court judges rejected his bid to put his sentence on hold.

Three federal appeals court judges ruled that Navarro had “not shown that his appeal presents substantial questions of law or fact likely to result in reversal, a new trial, a sentence that does not include a term of imprisonment or a reduced sentence of imprisonment that is less than the amount of time already served plus the expected duration of the appeal process.”

Read the full story here.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a court filing today that his office doesn’t oppose former President Donald Trump’s motion to delay the hush money trial that was slated to begin later this month.

The filing said “although the People are prepared to proceed to trial on March 25, we do not oppose an adjournment in an abundance of caution and to ensure that defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials,” Bragg wrote.

Bragg said his office doesn’t oppose delaying the start of the trial for 30 days.

The district attorney said that the U.S. Attorney’s Office yesterday had produced about 31,000 pages of “additional records” to both prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers and “indicated that an additional production would follow by next week.”

Read the full story here.

Consistent with Smith’s past appearances at Trump hearings, he did not speak a word during today’s hearing.

Cannon wrapped up the hearing telling Blanche that his argument that the classified documents case is the fault of the National Archives and Records Administration is a "red herring."

“NARA is not sitting at the table over there,” she added. 

Cannon ended the hearing, saying: “I will be ruling on [the motions] promptly."

Trump team has repeatedly compared the Mar-a-Lago indictment to the “Clinton Socks” case. I wrote a piece more than a year ago explaining what that case is about (and it’s not the Clintons’ cat, Socks). An excerpt summarizing that decision — and the most important reason why Clinton’s audiotaped conversations with historian Taylor Branch were not held to be presidential records is below:

The hearing about Trump's motions to dismiss charges in the classified documents case has adjourned for the afternoon.

Blanche wrapped up his arguments on behalf of Trump, saying that the National Archives and Records Administration never suggested that former presidents acted criminally when retaining classified documents, but this time is different, “because it’s President Trump.” 

"They can't have it both ways," he added.

David Harbach, began the prosecution's rebuttal, telling Cannon: “The documents charged in the indictment are not personal records. Period. They are nowhere close to that.” 

Maj. Michael Santiago of the Fort Pierce Police Department told NBC News that the department is investigating allegations of a battery incident across the street from the courthouse, where many Trump supporters have gathered. He said that the investigation was in early stages but that a person had been detained.

Court is back in session in Florida, where Cannon is hearing arguments about whether to dismiss certain counts in the indictment against Trump for storing classified documents at Mar-A-Lago.

In the latest exchange in an increasingly heated back-and-forth, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan is threatening to hold Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis in contempt of Congress if she does not respond to a subpoena for documents.

The letter, obtained by NBC News and dated today, is related to the committee’s investigation into alleged misuse of federal funds by Willis’ office. Willis is prosecuting the Georgia election interference case against Trump.

Jordan gives her until noon on March 28 to “produce all responsive documents to the subpoena,” adding: “If you fail to do so, the Committee will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings.”

NBC News has a request out to the DA’s office for comment.

Before leaving after hearing arguments this morning, Trump looked around the room and with his lips pursed, eyed special counsel Jack Smith. He looked left to co-defendant Walt Nauta and gave a slight nod. He rarely looked around the room otherwise, instead looking at Judge Cannon, sometimes with his head cocked, such as when there was discussion of Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified documents or John Brennan’s security clearance.

As he got up to leave, standing and beginning to walk toward a side exit, Trump leaned on the prosecutors’ table almost as if losing his step briefly.

There are no cameras allowed in court today, so these images from the court sketch artist will be the only ones we see from inside the courtroom.

In a separate New York civil case, Trump's lawyer Alina Habba filed a $91.63 million bond minutes ago.

The bond was approved by Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday.

This development comes after a jury in January ordered Trump to pay $83 million in damages for defaming author E. Jean Carroll. That judgment came less than a year after Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages in May for defaming and sexually abusing her.

For weeks, Trump's legal team has gone back and forth on this bond, asking the judge to reduce it or give them more time to secure it.

Now that it's been secured, the bond will insulate Trump from any efforts to collect the $83 million in damages while he wages an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

Cannon has allowed the prosecution time to respond to Bove’s arguments up to this point. Asked by Cannon if the motion at hand is “premature,” Bratt says that he believes the court can rule on the statute governing “gathering, transmitting or losing defense information,” but the motion on the Presidential Records Act is indeed premature.

Bratt also described the definition of personal and presidential records as “black and white,” and Cannon offered that it is uncontested that no other former president has faced any criminal charges based on that law.

“There has never been a situation remotely similar to this one,” Bratt responded.

Cannon tells the prosecution she is “struck by” the start of the retention charge being Jan. 21, 2021, because “there was no demand.” Then, Bratt and Cannon begin a back-and-forth over language and definitions in a different portion of the statute. During these exchanges, Trump whispered several times into Blanche’s ear.

The court is taking a lunch break for an hour and 15 minutes.

Donald Trump’s campaign is engineering a plan to “make lemonade out of lemons” as a full docket of court appearances are about to swamp his political calendar.

The strategy, the former president’s advisers tell NBC News, will involve trying to portray President Joe Biden as someone attempting to “imprison” his political opponents, muddying the waters between Trump’s and Biden’s legal problems, creating counterprogramming events focused on policy and ultimately pushing to delay the trials for as long as possible.

Read the full story here.

Trump continues to sit between his counsel as Kise and Blanche pass notes across the table to each other. Trump is watching the arguments closely, leaning forward at times or sitting back in his chair with his arms crossed. He occasionally whispers in Kise’s ear.

Bove continues to lay out Trump’s argument for dismissal on the grounds of “unconstitutional vagueness,” with questioning from Cannon.

Though the discussion at hand is focused on the question of “unconstitutional vagueness” and definitions of the term, Bove is at times previewing the defense’s dismissal argument based on the Presidential Records Act, telling Cannon that there is a “complete lack of standards” with regard to the “need to know” in the act.

Bove adds that “the government cannot make decisions based on selective criteria and political bias,” and that the theory the indictment is based on should be thrown out. He then cites the Clinton tapes, the Reagan documents, and most recently the Hur report’s description of President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents as other examples.

Just over an hour into the hearing, Cannon sounds like she may change the plan and allow the government to respond to her back-and-forth with Trump lawyer Emil Bove on the “unconstitutional vagueness” motion. So far, only Cannon and Bove have spoken during the hearing.

Shortly after bringing the court to order, Judge Aileen Cannon set the rules for how the hearing will be conducted. Attorneys for the former president will present their arguments for two motions before allowing the government to offer its response.

Trump's team began with arguments on the first motion, to dismiss counts 1-32 based on what they call unconstitutional vagueness.

Trump and his legal team — Todd Blanche, Chris Kise and Emil Bove — are all present, as well as Walt Nauta and his counsel. Trump is seated at the main table between Blanche and Kise. Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira, another co-defendant, is notably absent from the proceeding but has two attorneys present on his behalf.

Special counsel Jack Smith is present on behalf of the government, joined by prosecutors Jay Bratt and David Harbach.

In a taped Newsmax interview that aired last night, Trump attacked special counsel Jack Smith as “out to murder” and “deranged” and painted his legal battles as nothing more than political persecution.

Trump also claimed he and Biden were treated differently in their respective classified documents cases. Trump said the Presidential Records Act should protect him.

“So when you look at it, there’s something going on, because they’re going after me viciously. Then all of a sudden it comes out that Biden took 10 times the number of documents that I did, and I took them very legally and I wasn’t hiding them.”

Trump's campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on his remarks.

A man who says he worked at Mar-a-Lago went public earlier this week with his recollection of events leading up to the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Florida residence over the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.

In a televised interview with CNN, Brian Butler said he helped Trump aide Walt Nauta load about 10 to 15 boxes onto Trump’s plane at the West Palm Beach airport near his resort in June 2022, when representatives from the Justice Department were meeting with Trump and his attorneys about unreturned classified material.

Read the full story here.

The former president's motorcade arrived at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida, around 9:30 a.m.

Cannon has said that today's hearing is expected to take all day.

Trump’s legal team and prosecutors from Smith’s office are expected to argue their positions on whether some or all of the charges against Trump should be thrown out because of the Presidential Records Act before the case goes to trial.

Smith has urged Cannon to reject Trump’s claims that his presidential records “can be transformed into ‘personal’ records” upon being removed from the White House.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to attend a hearing Thursday in the federal criminal case involving his handling of classified documents in Florida, where his attorneys will argue the case should be thrown out.

Trump is not required to be at the hearing in Fort Pierce, but his lawyers indicated he and his two co-defendants would attend in a court filing Monday, where they asked for extra time to respond to some other outstanding motions in the case.

Read the full story here.

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Attorneys for Donald Trump will argue in a Florida courtroom on Thursday to dismiss the federal criminal case involving his handling of classified documents on the grounds that the Presidential Records Act bars his prosecution. 

Trump’s legal team and prosecutors for special counsel Jack Smith are expected to argue their positions on whether all or some of the charges should be thrown out because of the 1978 law that governs the preservation of information during and following a presidency.

Smith has called on the judge overseeing the case to reject Trump’s claim that he should be shielded from prosecution because classified presidential records “can be transformed into ‘personal’” records by removing them from the White House. Trump has said that he designated the materials he took to Mar-a-Lago as personal records while still in office. A president’s personal records are excluded from the act’s requirements.

The sides will also discuss a second motion to dismiss the case on the theory that the main statute used against Trump is unconstitutionally vague as it applies to presidents and can’t be used against him. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges that he wrongfully held on to classified information after leaving the White House.

Read the full story here.