Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday denied Donald Trump's motion to throw out the criminal case against him for retaining classified documents after he left the White House.
She appeared to leave open the door, however, to similar arguments Trump may use at his trial sometime in the future.
Trump's motion had argued that he has the right to retain classified document under the Presidential Records Act.
Cannon's short ruling made no determination on that issue. Rather, she ruled that Trump's attorneys did not meet the legal standard to dismiss charges. She also noted that prosecutors "make no reference to the Presidential Records Act" in the indictment against Trump and did not "rely" on the statute to bring charges, indicating the argument may simply be irrelevant.
She shot back at Special Counsel Jack Smith's request that Cannon issue a final judgment on whether Trump can use the law as a defense in his trial, insisting the "demand" was both "unprecedented and unjust."
Smith called for the ruling after Cannon earlier ordered both sides in the case to submit hypothetical jury instructions that would take into account Trump's claims of his alleged sweeping authority.
The Presidential Records Act was passed after former President Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal. Ironically, the law cited by Trump in his defense requires presidents at the end of their term to turn over presidential records to the National Archives, and established them as records belonging to the public. Trump argues that the same act also gives him comprehensive power over that system.
It was Trump's second court loss of the day. Earlier, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee ruled that election interference is not protected by the First Amendment, as Trump's legal team had argued in a motion seeking to throw out the case against him in Georgia.
McAfee ruled that Trump's bid to upend the state's presidential election results was not protected free speech, but activity "allegedly in furtherance of criminal actitivity," which the Constituion does not stand behind.
In addition, a judge on Wednesday denied Trump's claims of presidential immunity concerning his upcoming New York trail related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels before he was elected president.
