Trump says special counsel should be sanctioned for 'attacking' judge in documents case

Former President Trump again lashed out at special counsel Jack Smith, accusing the prosecutor of “attacking” the judge overseeing his documents case.

The post came after Smith urged U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon to reject arguments from Trump asserting that the more than 300 highly classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate could be considered personal records under the Presidential Records Act.

“Deranged ‘Special’ Counsel Jack Smith, who has a long record of failure as a prosecutor, including a unanimous decision against him in the U.S. Supreme Court, should be sanctioned or censured for the way he is attacking a highly respected Judge, Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over his FAKE Documents Hoax case in Florida,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday morning.

Smith’s response to Cannon was unusually direct in urging the judge to reverse course on asking both sides to propose jury instructions that would advise potential jurors on how to weigh the arguments.

It was a surprising course of action that baffled legal experts.

Cannon has yet to weigh a motion from Trump seeking to dismiss the case on the same grounds, letting the matter six for some six weeks. 

And in entertaining it further, Cannon has given greater consideration to an argument that many judges would have outright rejected.

Smith’s team said Trump’s case was based on a “fundamentally flawed legal premise” and also urged her to take up his motion to dismiss the case and “promptly decide” the matter. 

“Based on the current record, the PRA should not play any role at trial at all,” the special counsel wrote.

“It would be pure fiction to suggest that highly classified documents created by members of the intelligence community and military and presented to the President of the United States during his term in office were ‘purely private,’” prosecutors added later.