Trump sees good news in clas­si­fied doc­u­ments case after judge’s recent order

The Flori­da-based fed­er­al judge pre­sid­ing over the crim­i­nal clas­si­fied doc­u­ments case against Don­ald Trump threw spe­cial coun­sel Jack Smith a curve­ball last month in his pros­e­cu­tion of the for­mer pres­i­dent, poten­tial­ly giv­ing a boost to Trump’s defense.
U.S. Dis­trict Judge Aileen Can­non, a nom­i­nee of the for­mer pres­i­dent, request­ed pros­e­cu­tors and defense coun­sel to sub­mit prospec­tive jury instruc­tions that would high­light inter­pre­ta­tions of a law favor­able to Trump’s defense on or before April 2, accord­ing to a March 18 order.

In this image from video pro­vid­ed by the Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee, Aileen Can­non tes­ti­fies vir­tu­al­ly dur­ing her nom­i­na­tion hear­ing to the Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee in Wash­ing­ton, on July 29, 2020. (Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee via AP)

Trump has been argu­ing for months in court that he treat­ed the doc­u­ments he kept at his Mar-a-Lago prop­er­ty as per­son­al under the 1978 Pres­i­den­tial Records Act, which allows f …