法官驳回特朗普要求撤销机密文件起诉的请求
【中美创新时报2024 年 4 月 4 日编译讯】周四（4日），一名联邦法官拒绝驳回针对唐纳德·特朗普的机密文件起诉，并驳回了辩方的论点，即几十年前的法律允许这位前总统在离任后保留敏感记录。美联社记者埃里克·塔克（ERIC TUCKER）对此作了下述报道。
特朗普的律师援引了 1978 年颁布的《总统记录法》，要求在审判前驳回此案，这是针对这位共和党推定候选人的四起案件之一。该法律要求总统在离任时将总统记录移交给联邦政府，但允许他们保留纯粹的个人文件。
特别检察官杰克·史密斯团队的检察官反驳说，该法律与涉及机密文件处理不当的案件无关，并表示特朗普据称在海湖庄园囤积的记录无疑是总统记录，而不是个人档案。因此，当特朗普于 2021 年 1 月离开白宫时，必须将其归还给政府。
美国地区法官艾琳·坎农(Aileen Cannon)上个月听取了有关此事的辩论，她以一份三页的命令允许案件继续进行，驳回了特朗普团队的主张。她写道，针对特朗普的 40 项指控“没有提及《总统记录法》”，也没有“依据该法规来陈述罪行”。
这项裁决对史密斯的团队来说是一个小小的胜利，他们一直在努力推动检方今年进入审判阶段，同时也表达了越来越多的不满，包括本周早些时候，对坎农对此案的监督。特朗普驳回起诉书的其他动议仍未得到法官的解决，审判日期不断变化，额外的法律纠纷也减缓了案件的进展。
在周四的裁决中，坎农还为上个月的一项命令进行了辩护，该命令要求双方律师制定潜在的陪审团指示，并回应她似乎继续考虑特朗普总统记录论点的两种不同情况。
这项命令遭到了史密斯团队的严厉谴责，检察官在本周提交的一份文件中称她提出的前提“存在根本缺陷”，并警告说，如果她继续执行他们认为错误的陪审团指示，他们准备上诉。
坎农写道：“法院就某些罪名征求初步指示草案的命令不应被误解为宣布对本案任何基本要素或主张的辩护的最终定义。” “它也不应该被解释为其他任何东西：在即将到来的审判的背景下，一次真正的尝试，以更好地理解双方的竞争立场以及在这个复杂的第一印象案件中向陪审团提交的问题 ”。
周四的裁决是几个月来法官第二次驳回特朗普撤销此案的动议之一。今年三月，她驳斥了一项论点，即支持大部分指控的法规含糊不清，违宪，因此要求驳回起诉书。
坎农尚未对特朗普驳回此案的其他努力作出裁决，包括总统豁免权使他免遭起诉以及他受到“选择性和报复性起诉”的论点。
一份起诉书称，特朗普面临数十项与机密文件处理不当有关的重罪，指控他不当分享五角大楼的“攻击计划”和与军事行动有关的机密地图。
该案最初定于 5 月 20 日审理，但坎农上个月听取了有关新日期的辩论，但没有立即确定日期。双方都表示，他们可能会在今年夏天准备好接受审判，尽管辩护律师也表示，在选举悬而未决期间，特朗普不应被迫接受审判。
史密斯的团队单独指控特朗普密谋推翻 2020 年总统选举结果，由于最高法院审查了特朗普关于他免受联邦起诉的论点，该案被推迟。 佐治亚州富尔顿县的检察官还指控特朗普试图颠覆该州的选举，但目前尚不清楚该案何时会进入审判阶段。
特朗普封口费刑事审判将于 4 月 15 日在纽约进行陪审团遴选。
该案的核心是指控特朗普伪造公司内部记录，以掩盖向其前律师迈克尔·科恩付款的真实性质，科恩曾帮助特朗普埋葬了 2016 年总统竞选期间的负面故事。 除此之外，科恩还向色情演员斯托米·丹尼尔斯支付了 13 万美元，以压制她多年前与特朗普发生婚外性行为的说法。
特朗普已不认罪并否认发生过性行为。
题图：共和党总统候选人、前总统唐纳德·特朗普。PAUL SANCYA/美联社
附原英文报道：
Judge rejects Trump request to dismiss classified documents prosecution
By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press,Updated April 4, 2024
WASHINGTON — A federal judge refused Thursday to throw out the classified documents prosecution against Donald Trump, turning aside defense arguments that a decades-old law permitted the former president to retain the sensitive records after he left office.
Lawyers for Trump had cited a 1978 statute known as the Presidential Records Act in demanding that the case, one of four against the presumptive Republican nominee, be tossed out before trial. That law requires presidents upon leaving office to turn over presidential records to the federal government but permits them to retain purely personal papers.
Prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team countered that that law had no relevance to a case concerning the mishandling of classified documents and said the records Trump is alleged to have hoarded at his Mar-a-Lago estate were unquestionably presidential records, not personal files, and therefore had to be returned to the government when Trump left the White House in January 2021.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who heard arguments on the matter last month, permitted the case to proceed in a three-page order that rejected the Trump team claims. She wrote that the 40-count indictment against Trump makes “no reference to the Presidential Records Act” nor does it “rely on that statute for purposes of stating an offense.”
The ruling represents a modest win for Smith’s team, which has been trying to push the prosecution forward to trial this year while also expressing growing frustration, including earlier this week, with Cannon’s oversight of the case. Other Trump motions to dismiss the indictment remain unresolved by the judge, the trial date is in flux, and additional legal disputes have slowed the progress of the case.
In Thursday’s ruling, Cannon also defended an order from last month that asked lawyers for both sides to formulate potential jury instructions and to respond to two different scenarios in which she appeared to be continuing to entertain Trump’s presidential records argument.
The order drew a sharp rebuke from Smith’s team, with prosecutors in a filing this week calling the premises she laid out “fundamentally flawed” and warning that they were prepared to appeal if she pushed ahead with jury instructions that they considered wrong.
“The Court’s order soliciting preliminary draft instructions on certain counts should not be misconstrued as declaring a final definition on any essential element or asserted defense in this case,” Cannon wrote. “Nor should it be interpreted as anything other than what it was: a genuine attempt, in the context of the upcoming trial, to better understand the parties’ competing positions and the questions to be submitted to the jury in this complex case of first impression.”
The ruling Thursday is the second time in as many months that the judge has denied one of Trump’s motions to drop the case. In March, she spurned an argument that the statute underpinning the bulk of the charges was unconstitutionally vague and therefore required the dismissal of the indictment.
Cannon has yet to rule on other Trump efforts to dismiss the case, including arguments that presidential immunity shields him from prosecution and that he has been subject to “selective and vindictive prosecution.”
Trump is facing dozens of felony counts related to the mishandling of classified documents, according to an indictment alleging he improperly shared a Pentagon “plan of attack” and a classified map related to a military operation.
The case was initially set for trial on May 20, but Cannon heard arguments last month on a new date without immediately setting one. Both sides have said they could be ready for trial this summer, though defense lawyers have also said Trump should not be forced to stand trial while the election is pending.
Smith’s team has separately charged Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, a case delayed by a Supreme Court review of his arguments that he is immune from federal prosecution. Prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga., have also charged Trump with trying to subvert that state’s election, though it remains unclear when that case will reach trial.
Jury selection is set for April 15 in Trump’s hush money criminal trial in New York.
That case centers on allegations that Trump falsified his company’s internal records to hide the true nature of payments to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who helped Trump bury negative stories during his 2016 presidential campaign. Among other things, Cohen paid porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied having a sexual encounter.
