Trump Won’t Be Able to Delay Florida Classified Documents Case Any Longer, Clarifies Judge Cannon

Former President Donald Trump may not be able to delay much longer in the secret materials lawsuit in Florida, and the judge supervising the case recently discreetly informed him and his legal team of this on September 13, a legal expert shared on Twitter, reported Raw Story.

Judge Cannon, who has initially been reversed on appeal for her deference to the former President in an underlying civil suit, issued a fourth-order on Wednesday summarizing prior decisions issued during the day. However, a vital piece of information is allegedly buried in that document, according to legal expert Lisa Rubin.

"Judge Aileen Cannon entered a fourth order today, both summarizing her rulings on the government's protective order motion and setting up the further briefing. But in a footnote, she seems to have quantified the volume of classified discovery to come," Rubin wrote on Twitter. Specifically, Rubin reported, that Cannon "says that yesterday, the Special Counsel acknowledged the classified information in this case 'consist[s] of approximately 3,500 pages classified at various levels.'"

Rubin explained, "If that's the totality of the classified information at issue, Trump's team review and analysis thereof may not exactly justify further delay," which means the legal troubles have just mounted even more for the Trump legal defense. "After all, the general rule of thumb is that a banker's box of materials contains roughly 3,000 pages," she added.

On Wednesday, the judge also issued an order limiting the former President's access to evidence and prohibiting him from publicly discussing classified material, reported NBC News. The 16-page order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is essentially consistent with a suggestion special counsel Jack Smith's team provided in July for how Trump and his attorneys should handle the case's crucial national security material.

"The limitations on disclosure of classified information set forth in this Order are binding on the defendant and his counsel, and violations may result in criminal and/or civil penalties," Cannon wrote. The version prosecutors proposed called for the order to be "forever binding." 

Despite Trump's public claims that he had previously declassified all of the documents uncovered during a warrant search of his Florida club last year, the order refers to the items in question as remaining classified. "The Court finds that this case will involve information that has been classified in the interest of national security," and the "storage, handling, and control of this information will require special security precautions," Cannon wrote.

"All classified documents or material and the information contained therein shall remain classified unless the documents or material bear a clear indication that they have been declassified by the agency or department that is the originating agency of the document, material, or information contained therein," she continued.