CBS News
Judge rejects Trump’s bid to dismiss classified documents case but agrees to strike an allegation in the charges
Washington — The federal judge overseeing special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Donald Trump once again rejected requests by the former president’s legal team to dismiss the charges against him, according to an order filed Monday evening.
Judge Aileen Cannon denied numerous claims by Trump’s defense attorneys and his co-defendants arguing the 2023 indictment was technically flawed, but she criticized prosecutors’ description of one incident as unnecessary to the charges and agreed to strike a single paragraph from the charging document because she said it “improperly contained uncharged offense allegations.”
Smith charged Trump with 40 counts that include the unlawful retention of national defense information after investigators recovered hundreds of classified documents from his time in the White House at his Florida estate. The former president and his co-defendants — aide Walta Nauta and former Mar-a-Lago employee Carlos de Oliveira — are also accused of engaging in an alleged scheme to obstruct the federal probe.
All three have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Smith’s office declined to comment on the recent ruling. Trump’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Trump, Nauta and de Oliveira made numerous arguments to the court in their bid to dismiss the charges before going to trial, including that several alleged crimes were listed under a single charge and that prosecutors failed to show Nauta and de Oliveria knew classified documents were contained in the boxes they are accused of moving. The defense also claimed the form in which the charges were written was technically insufficient.
Cannon rejected those claims because she said the language in the indictment was legally permissible. In some circumstances, she wrote the issues could be raised by the defense at trial.
Although a near-total win for Smith, the judge’s ruling also criticized the style of the special counsel’s indictment as containing “nonessential allegations more akin to a narrative about the government’s theory of prosecution.” Cannon wrote the “speaking indictment” — a term used to describe a descriptive charging document — contained allegations and language against Trump that were “legally unnecessary” to the underlying charges.
Despite the critique, she ruled nearly all of the 60-page indictment would stand, except for a single paragraph in which prosecutors described a moment in 2021 when Trump allegedly showed an individual who did not hold a security clearance a classified map of a foreign nation.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The judge wrote that the paragraph was unnecessary and would be stricken from the indictment, as Trump is not charged with showing anyone else classified records. She did, however, leave open the possibility that the alleged conduct could be included in any trial after proper litigation.
Her ruling was in line with comments she has made in past court hearings in which she specifically called the charging documents against Trump a “speaking indictment” and noted its length.
Cannon’s order on Monday also mirrored others published in recent months in which she rejected Trump’s legal arguments, but wrote critically of the special counsel and his prosecutors.
In April, she agreed with Smith that the names of potential witnesses should remain redacted in publicly filed documents, but scolded prosecutors for not making that particular argument sooner. Last month, Cannon criticized Smith’s team for failing to confer with the defense and described them as “wholly lacking in substance and professional courtesy” when she rejected their request to limit Trump’s speech about law enforcement on the case. Cannon did, however, allow the special counsel to refile his request and she is still considering it.
A trial date in the case has yet to be set as the judge said she is working through other pretrial matters. Cannon previously rejected other arguments brought by Trump that the charges should be dropped and has set public hearings on various motions throughout the summer months.
Smith also charged Trump in Washington, D.C., with four federal counts alleging he worked to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election. The former president pleaded not guilty to those charges and the case is presently on hold as the Supreme Court considers his claims of presidential immunity from prosecution.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
An Orange County, California, jury found 26-year-old Sam Woodward guilty of first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement Wednesday for the 2018 death of Blaze Bernstein, whose body was found days after he went missing, buried in a shallow grave at a Lake Forest park.
The jury reached its verdict after deliberating for just one day.
The judge hushed the courtroom as applause was heard during the reading of the verdict.
The prosecution had argued for Woodward to be found guilty of first-degree murder as a hate crime. Defense attorneys argued that Woodward should be convicted for voluntary manslaughter and acquitted of hate-crime allegations.
Jurors also were asked to consider second-degree murder. Closing arguments in the case had begun Friday, two-and-a-half months after the trial began in Santa Ana.
Following the reading of the guilty verdict, Bernstein’s parents shared their gratitude to the jury, to law enforcement and to the “army of supporters and volunteers” who were with them through the six-and-a-half-year ordeal.
“This was a great relief that justice was served and this despicable human, who murdered our son, will no longer be a threat to the public,” his mother Jeanne Pepper Bernstein said. “We are grateful to the jury for their service and their long days and weeks they spent in that service. Justice has been served.”
Sam Woodward was charged with stabbing Bernstein to death a little over six years ago. The Newport Beach man admitted to stabbing Bernstein, a 19-year-old gay, Jewish man, multiple times in 2018, but pleaded not guilty to murder with an enhancement for a hate crime.
Orange County prosecutor Jennifer Walker maintained to jurors that Woodward stabbed Bernstein, his former high school classmate, because he was gay, and buried his body at Borrego Park in Lake Forest.
“To dig a grave in that terrain, and bury and clean up and murder someone in an hour and half..that is not someone who is just going, ‘Oh..something happened and I need to figure it out.’ That is determined,” Walker said.
Bernstein, who was a college sophomore, was home visiting his family on winter break in January 2018 when he went missing after going with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, California. Woodward picked Bernstein up from his parents’ home after connecting with him on social media.
Bernstein’s parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom the next day when he missed a dentist appointment and wasn’t responding to texts or calls, prosecutors wrote in a trial brief.
Days later, Bernstein’s body was found buried at the park in a shallow grave.
The case took years to go to trial after questions were raised about Woodward’s mental state and following defense attorney changes. Woodward was deemed competent to stand trial in late 2022.
Woodward took the stand for several days and confessed to jurors that he stabbed Bernstein multiple times.
DNA evidence linked Woodward to the killing and his cellphone contained troves of anti-gay, antisemitic and hate group materials, authorities said.
“Now with the verdict in hand, we believe justice has been served and that Blaze’s memory will be honored through this outcome,” Pepper Bernstein said.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
