Cannon seemed to invite Trump to raise the argument again at trial, where Jack Smith can’t appeal, expert says

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday rejected one of former President Donald Trump’s motions to dismiss his classified documents case.

Cannon shot down Trump’s motion arguing that the Espionage Act is unconstitutionally vague when applied to a former president.

Cannon after a daylong hearing issued an order saying some of Trump’s arguments warrant “serious consideration” but wrote that no judge has ever found the statute unconstitutional. Cannon said that “rather than prematurely decide now,” she denied the motion so it could be “raised as appropriate in connection with jury-instruction briefing and/or other appropriate motions.”

“The Judge’s ruling was virtually incomprehensible, even to those of us who speak ‘legal’ as our native language,” former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wrote on Substack, calling part of her ruling “deliberately dumb.”

“The good news here is temporary,” Vance wrote. “It’s what I’d call an ugly win for the government. The Judge dismissed the vagueness argument—but just for today. She did it ‘without prejudice,’ which means that Trump’s lawyers could raise the argument again later in the case. In fact, the Judge seemed to do just that in her order, essentially inviting the defense to raise the argument again at trial.”

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    61
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    8 months ago

    Member when they were like “o no the DNC is absolutely going to run Hillary” and everyone was like “lol well she can at least beat trump” and then four years of utter political insanity and this judge gets the biggest case to come out of that infected turd circus?

    I dunno i thought i was going somewhere with that but maybe it’s just a still life

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Remember when Hilary threw the election away by not even campaigning in what were otherwise secure democratic states that she lost, and how she spent so much time giving secret talks to rich people and corporations behind security and white noise generators, and generally did everything she could to be unlikable? and if she had put in even the slighest modicum of effort, she’d be the president we complained about instead of the Trump horror show despite of all of Russias interference and bullshit?

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        I mean all of that might be true but I still put a lot of blame on the assholes who voted for trump.

        Sometimes we act like only Democrats have agency, and Republicans are just like a force of nature. Like a fire that burns without thought or a bear that mauls because that’s what bears do. But they’re still people and they could have chosen something else.

        Trump supporters are at fault.

        “Clinton didn’t come to my state and make me feel special” is not an acceptable justification for supporting the catastrofuck that is trump.

        • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          Its not “Clinton didnt come to my state and make me feel special”

          its

          “Clinton didnt go to these states, to engage with her base and share with them her vision, plans, goals, etc, Which allowed just enough to be swayed by those that did

          • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            If this was 1840 I’d be more convinced. We have the internet. We’ve had radio for a hundred years. You shouldn’t need to go to a rally to know what a major politican’s visions, plans, goals, etc, are.

            “I felt ignored” is a stupid emotional response, but I can understand it, kind of. Sometimes I’m petty, too. Feeling so ignored that you vote for trump is inexcusable, though. I don’t think I’d excuse shirking your civic duty here, either.

            • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              8 months ago

              You are sure hung up on this whole “I was ignored” thing.

              Are you, specifically, upset that cause you felt ignored?

              • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                8 months ago

                That’s what I took from the “she didn’t come to my state and share her vision with me, specifically” thing. Or the related "I don’t like being called flyover country ", I guess. Maybe I just don’t get the people in question.

                I live in a major city and don’t feel politically ignored. A little, what do you call it, victim of a tyranny of a minority, sometimes, what with like North and South Dakota having senators.

      • Simon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        8 months ago

        Remember when the party fucked over Bernie for an institutionalized candidate who no-one liked instead?

        And if you want to argue that they didn’t have a choice, it’s the difference of 300 delegates in the face of internal organizational opinion that you control. You can’t maintain that it wasn’t a choice. The DNC chose Hilary.

        • btaf45@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          8 months ago

          for an institutionalized candidate who no-one liked instead?

          How idiotic can you get? If no one liked the nominee she wouldn’t have had the most votes.

          The DNC chose Hilary.

          By “DNC” you mean the voters?

          You can’t maintain that it wasn’t a choice.

          Exactly. Stop pretending it wasn’t the voter’s choice. That is Trump level bullshit. There just wasn’t enough of us voting Bernie.

    • Raykin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      8 months ago

      I’m with you bud. This shit is confounding.

      Also, you had my upvote at ‘member’.

    • Hominine@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      38
      ·
      8 months ago

      All I remember is Bernie voters making all this noise online and not turning out at the primaries. I turned out though, did you?

      • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        34
        arrow-down
        17
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Many, many people turned out for the primaries. Just to find their polling places closed or their name purged off registered voter roles.

        People DID show up for 2016. The DNC railroaded Hillary through anyways. If you’re going to remember history, remember WHY it went poorly, ffs.

        • Hominine@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          18
          arrow-down
          11
          ·
          8 months ago

          In such huge numbers right? You have evidence of this as it’s not conspiracy right?

          I remember this noise being made too and it had no basis back then, but again, please feel free to provide the evidence.

            • Hominine@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              23
              arrow-down
              6
              ·
              8 months ago

              There is plenty of evidence, but your dumb ass didn’t listen when it was fresh, either. Fucking grow up and realize Democrats aren’t your friend either unless you make a HEALTHY six figures or more. You’ll sound much less like a willfully ignorant piece of shit.

              So name calling in lieu of evidence? If that’s all you got MotoAsh, I’m glad you put it on the table.

              I guess the irony of stolen elections claims without evidence is just lost on some churlish segment of the left.

            • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              9
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              8 months ago

              Removed. You can attack Democrats all you want, but don’t attack other users.

              Civility.

        • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          15
          arrow-down
          9
          ·
          8 months ago

          I remember history. None of that happened. Bernie lost by 8M votes. This was a decade ago, move on and stop spreading Russian propaganda.

          • Morgoon@startrek.website
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            8 months ago

            The chair of the DNC was forced to resign because the Democrats were caught conspiring against Sanders theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/24/debbie-wasserman-schultz-resigns-dnc-chair-emails-sanders “She has been forced to step aside after a leak of internal DNC emails showed officials actively favouring Hillary Clinton during the presidential primary and plotting against Clinton’s rival, Bernie Sanders.”

            Sanders supporters sued the DNC and their defense was picking the Democratic nominee was free speech and that they had every right to, “go into back rooms like they used to and smoke cigars and pick the candidate that way.”

            Despite article IV section 5 of the DNC charter stating, “The chairperson is required to exercise impartiality and evenhandedness in the preparation and conduct of the presidential nomination process, specifically between the presidential candidates and campaigns. It is important that all parties involved adhere to these guidelines to ensure a fair and just process for all candidates.”

            • njm1314@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              7
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              8 months ago

              You’ll notice and nowhere in your link does it say anything about purging voter rolls and closing polling places.

              • Morgoon@startrek.website
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                8 months ago

                I didn’t say they did? But they did argue in court that the Primaries are just a show and that they’re going to nominate whomever they decide. And WikiLeaks revealed that they were conspiring against Sanders.

                • Optional@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  5
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  8 months ago

                  Thank you that was the link I was going to get too. And yes, HRC still won, but it is not arguable that the DNC didn’t put their thumb on the scale for her which is - very plainly - anti-Democratic.

            • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              8 months ago

              The only lawsuit the Sanders campaign filed was withdrawn on further clarification over use of DNC voter targeting systems. Again, you are spreading misinformation.

        • nilloc
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          8 months ago

          It wasn’t purged voting lists, it was pre-committed superdelegates for the DNC. They didn’t need to give a shit what happened at the poles.

          • EatATaco@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            8 months ago

            If you remove the super delegates from the primary, Clinton still handily beat sanders. If you give sanders every super delegate of a state of a primary he won to him, Clinton still handily beat him.

            It was never close, she beat him by 12 percentage points.