According to a legal veteran, a single legal weapon could reduce the federal allegations against former President Donald Trump to insignificant legal debris.
Fox News quotes civil rights attorney Leo Terrell as saying that the Presidential Records Act is a potent weapon in Trump’s defense against special prosecutor Jack Smith’s allegations that he mishandled classified documents.
Terrell expressed his views on the Fox News program “Life, Liberty & Levin.” The program is scheduled to air on Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Invoking the 1978 and 1990s-amended act, according to Terrell, should result in the “complete dismissal of these frivolous charges against Donald J. Trump.”
KCRA-TV reports that the Presidential Records Act allows a president to have possession and management of his records during his term in office. When a president departs office, his records are transferred to the Archivist of the United States.
The conduct vindicates Trump, according to Terrell.
“President Trump had the absolute right to declassify any and all documents in his custody, control and possession. There has been no response to that by the prosecution, Terrell said, according to Fox. “I’ll tell you why: Because they don’t have one.”
He said invoking the act is the equivalent of “game over.”
“That is, to me, the most important first motion President Trump’s legal team could file,” he said.
Terrell stated that the objective of the prosecution is to prevent Trump from entering the White House.
“The leading Republican candidate, in my opinion, the next president of this country, is trying to be derailed by the prosecution, by Joe Biden, by Merrick Garland, by Christopher Wray and the Democratic machine… and the left-wing media,” he said.
According to Politico, Trump’s attorneys attempted to delay the trial on the charges until after the 2024 presidential election last week.
“Proceeding to trial during the pendency of a Presidential election cycle wherein opposing candidates are effectively (if not literally) directly adverse to one another in this action will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process and limit the Defendants’ ability to secure a fair and impartial adjudication,” attorneys for Trump and co-defendant, Walt Nauta, wrote in a filing.
According to The Associated Press, prosecutors pushed back on this argument.
“Our jury system relies on the Court’s authority to craft a thorough and effective jury selection process, and on prospective jurors’ ability and willingness to decide cases based on the evidence presented to them, guided by legal instructions from the Court,” the Justice Department wrote in its legal response, according to the AP.
“To be sure, the Government readily acknowledges that jury selection here may merit additional protocols (such as a questionnaire) and may be more time-consuming than in other cases, but those are reasons to start the process sooner rather than later.”