On Wednesday, the federal judge presiding over the case against Donald Trump for allegedly illegally storing top secret materials at his Florida residence ordered the former president to utilize a secure facility to review classified evidence and severely restricted his ability to share the information with anyone.
Trump and his legal team are bound by a protective order issued by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, which states that they may not reveal any classified information related to the case to anyone other than the court, government personnel with appropriate security clearances and a need-to-know, and others “specifically authorized to access that information.”
This week, attorneys for Trump and two other defendants in the case met with prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith’s team in a closed session, which prompted Cannon’s decision. It was a routine but contentious question of how the parties should be instructed to treat the sensitive evidence at the heart of the indictment.
Trump’s attorneys had argued for his reinstatement of the same secure facility he had used as president to review secret information.
As Trump took hundreds of sensitive documents with him when he left office, prosecutors were adamantly against the idea of setting up such a facility at Mar-a-Lago. They claimed he wanted preferential treatment for himself that would not be granted to any other defendant.
Prosecutors essentially interpreted his request as him seeking to be the first defendant in a case containing classified material (at least to the knowledge of the Government) to be allowed to discuss such information in a private residence. In addition to being an exclusive social club, Mar-a-Lago’s less-than-ideal layout makes it ill-suited even for storing valuables than the average home.
On Wednesday, Cannon issued a 16-page ruling that included no mention of Mar-a-Lago, signaling she did not agree with Trump’s request. Instead, she instructed Trump’s legal team to study classified evidence in a certified secure compartmented information facility (SCIF).
Cannon added that she has been told Trump’s attorneys have temporary security credentials that give them access to secret material.
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