Jack Smith blasts Trump's 'fictional PRA defense,' says Mar-a-Lago judge 'must' rule 'promptly'

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

49% : "U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on March 18 caused a stir by ordering the parties to file "proposed jury instructions limited to the essential elements" of Trump's Espionage Act charges and to "engage with" two "competing scenarios and offer alternative draft text that assumes each scenario to be a correct formulation of the law to be issued to the jury [.]"The scenarios, as Cannon posed them, began with defense notion that the PRA permitted Trump to unilaterally decide that the classified documents at issue were personal records he was entitled to take and keep at Mar-a-Lago, thereby potentially dooming Espionage Act charges:(a) In a prosecution of a former president for allegedly retaining documents in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(e), a jury is permitted to examine a record retained by a former president in his/her personal possession at the end of his/her presidency and make a factual finding as to whether the government has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it is personal or presidential using the definitions set forth in the Presidential Records Act (PRA).(b) A president has sole authority under the PRA to categorize records as personal or presidential during his/her presidency.
41% : "The prosecution said that it has interviewed various witnesses -- including Trump's "own PRA representatives and numerous high-ranking officials from the White House -- Chiefs of Staff, White House Counsel and senior members of the White House Counsel's Office, a National Security Advisor, and senior members of the National Security Council" -- and "[n]ot a single one" of these individuals heard anything about him designating the records in question as personal.Smith also traced the genesis of Trump's PRA arguments to February 2022 and Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, "who was not an attorney":Around this same time, the Judicial Watch president, who was not an attorney, told another Trump employee that Trump was being given bad advice, and that the records Trump possessed at Mar-a-Lago should have been characterized as personal.
40% : Before this time, the second employee had never heard this theory from Trump.
36% : Nevertheless, on February 10, 2022, Trump released a statement claiming in part, "I have been told I was under no obligation to give the material based on various legal rulings that have been made over the years."
35% : No other witness recalled Trump espousing this theory until after the Judicial Watch president conveyed it to him in February 2022.
26% : "Trump has no evidence to support such a factual defense because he and his representatives repeatedly characterized the records as presidential rather than personal long after he left the White House.
25% : The second employee advised the Judicial Watch president that they disagreed with the Judicial Watch president's analysis: in Judicial Watch, former President Clinton had made the designation of certain records personal while President, whereas Trump had not done so.
25% : The special counsel concluded by saying that Trump cannot even launch a factual defense based on his PRA theories since doing so "requires evidence," which he does not have.
18% : The second employee further informed Trump that the Judicial Watch president was wrong and explained why.
17% : "All the more problematic, the special counsel said, is that Trump's PRA reliance "is not based on any facts":Importantly, Trump has never represented to this Court that he in fact designated the classified documents as personal.

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