Judge Aileen Cannon has announced plans to hold additional hearings regarding Donald Trump’s challenges to key evidence in his classified documents case. The former president’s lawyers will be allowed to question witnesses about the investigation and search of Mar-a-Lago. In a new order issued on Thursday, Cannon expressed the need for more evidence regarding the language in the FBI warrant used to seize classified records from Mar-a-Lago in 2022 and grand jury testimony from Trump’s former attorney, Evan Corcoran. The issues were discussed in hearings earlier in the week, but Cannon did not make a ruling at that time. The judge did not specify when the additional hearings would take place.
Cannon has faced criticism for prolonging the case with multiple hearings, with a prosecutor accusing the Trump team of attempting to hijack the proceedings to spread conspiracies about federal investigators’ work. In a lengthy 11-page order, Cannon defended her decision to hold further hearings, stating, “There is a difference between a resource-wasting and delay-producing ‘mini-trial’ and an evidentiary hearing geared towards adjudicating the contested factual and legal issues.” The judge indicated that she will revisit the language used in the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago and the Justice Department’s reliance on Corcoran’s testimony for the obstruction part of the case.
The special counsel’s office has been strongly against the need for additional hearings and Trump’s attempts to dismiss parts of the case. Any further court proceedings would involve witness testimony and presentation of evidence before a trial can proceed. Cannon would then have to decide whether evidence seized from Trump’s Florida estate and Corcoran’s grand jury testimony could be used in the trial. Dates for the additional hearings have not yet been set by Cannon.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that the wording in the search warrant authorizing the seizure of “national defense information” and “Presidential Records” lacked specificity, a point on which Cannon agreed, acknowledging “ambiguities” in the language used. However, the judge denied Trump’s request for another hearing on the validity of the court-approved warrant to search rooms at Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s legal team is also contesting a federal court’s decision in Washington, DC, to compel Corcoran to reveal his conversations with Trump during the grand jury investigation.
In her order, Cannon stated that she would reexamine the use of Corcoran’s notes and testimony regarding his former client. Additionally, she allowed one more filing from each party on a proposed gag order from the special counsel’s office. During a hearing on the gag order, Cannon emphasized the need for a factual connection between Trump’s comments and any potential threats, as raised by the prosecutors.
In response to the developments, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, Steven Cheung, called for the case to be dismissed, describing the entire documents case as a “political sham.” Cheung praised Judge Cannon for scheduling hearings on what he deemed the “un-Constitutional piercing of President Trump’s attorney-client privilege” and the “illegal raid on Mar-a-Lago by Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ.”
This story has been updated with additional information, with contributions from CNN’s Holmes Lybrand.
