Trump judge refuses Jack Smith request to keep filings in Mar-a-Lago case secret

The judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents case on Monday ordered the unsealing of documents filed by special counsel Jack Smith, who had asked they be kept under wraps because they could unveil some of the government's plans in the trial.

Judge Aileen Cannon said she was “mindful of the strong presumption in favor of public access to judicial documents” when she ordered the unsealing, which makes public several of the motions filed by Smith in the case accusing Trump of keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Smith had previously asked that the filing be kept under seal because they contained government plans to delete "highly sensitive classified information" from sharable discovery.

Cannon ruled that there was nothing secret in his motions.

Read Cannon's ruling here.

Smith said he had concerns that “even disclosing” the “number of categories of classified information that the Government seeks to delete from discovery would reveal the contours and extent of the Government’s CIPA Section 4 motion.”

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Cannon said Smith, “Has not provided a sufficient justification to warrant filing either Motion on an ex parte basis” because the motions did not “contain or otherwise reveal classified information.”

“Moreover,” Cannon wrote, “although the Special Counsel suggests that the mere filing of its motion for additional pages might ‘reveal the contours and extent of the Government’s CIPA Section 4 motion,’ because it indicates that ‘four categories of especially sensitive classified information’ will be addressed in the Section 4 motion, that bare reference, without more, is not a basis to deviate from the presumption against ex parte filings in our adversarial system of justice.”

Read the full report over at Law&Crime.