'No court will uphold' possible Judge Cannon dismissal of Mar-a-Lago charges: Morning Joe
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough ripped federal judge Aileen Cannon for even considering whether to dismiss the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case against Donald Trump.
The U.S. District Court judge will hear arguments Thursday morning on whether Trump had the authority under the Presidential Records Act to declassify and retain any government documents he wanted after leaving the White House, and the "Morning Joe" host cast doubt on Cannon's ethics.
"We'll see if the judge, who I guess desperately wants to be appointed something else by Donald Trump, will make the mistake she did before and then get absolutely excoriated by the 11th Circuit," Scarborough said.
That appeals court reversed a Cannon order in December 2022 to appoint a special master in the review of those classified documents seized by the FBI from the former president's private residence, finding that she had “improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction” in hearing the case, and Scarborough predicted that a dismissal would prompt a similar response.
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"She can rule what she rules, but no court will uphold a preposterous argument," Scarborough said.
Trump's lawyers argue the main statute Trump has been charged with violating is unconstitutionally vague, and Trump told a friendly Newsmax host in an interview that he and his attorneys agreed he had the right to take anything he wanted from the White House.
"That's just not true, what he said," Scarborough said. "So let's just say that Donald Trump accidentally packed his shirts, golf shoes, and some classified documents and took it down, discovered it, and then said, 'Hey, I've got these things, you guys need to have them back.' No harm, no foul. They would have come to get them. In fact, that's exactly what happened in Joe Biden's case."
"Here, doesn't matter what he says on Newsmax or Fox," Scarborough added. "Here, he had the documents, he knew he had the documents. He lied to the FBI about the documents. They tried negotiating to get the documents back, he gave some of them back. In fact, he had his lawyers actually sign affidavits swearing the documents were back. Ended up, they were lying. He kept more documents, he then tried to get his IT guy to destroy the evidence, the IT guy refused. He then asked someone else to flood the IT room with water from the swimming pool. That guy refused, as well. They are now testifying against Donald Trump."
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