The federal judge overseeing the case involving former President Donald Trump and two associates made a decision on Monday. She removed a paragraph from the indictment but denied a request from the defense to drop some charges.
The paragraph in question alleged that in 2021, after Trump had left office, he showed a classified map of a foreign country to a political action committee representative. He reportedly discussed a military operation that wasn’t going well at the time.
Trump is accused in the indictment of unlawfully keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump’s campaign emphasizes restoring “law and order” (Via Newsweek)
The defense argued that the paragraph was unfair because it didn’t relate to any crime listed in the indictment. Judge Aileen Cannon agreed, saying it wasn’t appropriate to include that language.
However, this ruling doesn’t change much for the case overall. Cannon kept the rest of the indictment intact and refused to dismiss any of the charges. In her 14-page order, she criticized the special counsel’s team for including unnecessary language in the indictment, which she said could cause confusion.
The judge’s decision comes amid several pretrial motions and disputes that have delayed the case. Last month, she postponed the trial indefinitely, which was originally scheduled for May 20 in Fort Pierce, Fla.
