'Nonsense': Former prosecutor dismisses Trump's Judge Cannon ploy as 'wrong'

Former President Donald Trump's arguments Thursday to dismiss the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case were completely wrong, former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams claimed on CNN.

The arguments, delivered before Judge Aileen Cannon, didn't appear to sway her — although the judge, controversial for her repeated orders that experts suggest have favored Trump, kept her opinions close to her chest in the hearing.

"We look at what Judge Aileen Cannon has been saying in court, she had been questioning Trump's lawyers, asking if their argument was perhaps premature, if it was something that really they should have been dealt with later, maybe in trial," said anchor Brianna Keilar. "I wonder what you thought of the questions she was asking of the lawyers today?"

Cannon's line of questioning was "fine," replied Williams, because, "Trump's team is seeming to argue two things. Number one, the law is vague on classified documents cases, and that's nonsense. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of people have been charged under the same statute. Now, look, they're not presidents of the United States, but there's nothing vague about the notion of retention of sensitive documents as a criminal offense. And so that's fine."

The other question that Trump's team tried to bring up was whether the national defense documents stored at Mar-a-Lago were his personal records, Williams said. "That is a factual question to be decided at trial, and the president's team is more than open to try to make that case in front of a jury, but that's not a legal question."

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"They're arguing it is," Keilar cut in. "Why isn't it?"

"Because they're wrong," said Williams bluntly. "I mean, they can argue whatever they want. The simple fact is there's a determination to be made about what these documents were, and you can't wave a magic wand and say that simply because I was president, every single document in my possession was my personal documents.

"He's free to make that argument at trial. But as means of making the entire indictment go away, that's just simply not the right way to go."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

Elliot Williams says Trump's Mar-a-Lago defenses are "nonsense" www.youtube.com