Judge Aileen Cannon rejected a request by the Prosecutor’s Office to keep secret a list of 84 potential witnesses in the criminal trial to which former President Donald Trump will be subjected for classified documents found at his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
The judge made her decision public a few hours after it became known that a group of media asked the court in the case precisely not to allow the list to be sealed, that is, out of public and press view.
But in the judicial document introduced on Monday in the case file, the judge says that the Prosecutor’s Office did not sufficiently justify the reasons for not making the list public.
“The Government’s motion does not explain why it is necessary to present the list before the Court; does not offer a particular basis for justifying that it is not in public view; it does not explain why partial sealing, redaction, or other means are unavailable or unsatisfactory, and it does not specify the duration of that sealing measure,” Cannon wrote.
The judge also noted that while Trump’s defense will not take a position on this matter at this time, they reserve the right to challenge it at a later date.
Previously, the so-called “media coalition” had expressed to the court in a letter that “the first (federal) prosecution of a former president of the United States is one of the most important criminal cases in the nation’s history.”
“The interest of the American public in this matter and the need to monitor its progress every step of the way cannot be underestimated,” they said in their petition.
Television channels such as CNN, ABC, Telemundo and Univision, agencies such as the Associated Press and Reuters, and written media such as The Wall Street Journal, The Miami Herald and the Los Angeles Times, among many others, are part of the coalition.
This same group unsuccessfully tried to get cameras into the federal courthouse in Miami where on June 13 Trump was placed in court and formally charged with 37 counts for seven criminal offenses related to the discovery of a hundred documents. classified at his Florida home in 2022, when he was no longer president.
The former president pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Noting that “it is essential that there be full transparency at all stages of this landmark case,” the media say that otherwise, “public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings in particular and the judicial system in general will suffer.” perhaps irreversibly.”
The Prosecutor’s Office had previously asked the court to keep a sealed list of people – “apparently 84”, according to the coalition – to whom Trump cannot speak directly because they are potential witnesses in the case in the trial to be held in Fort Pierce, Florida. , starting August 14.
That is the date set in principle by Judge Aileen Cannon, although the Prosecutor’s Office has already asked to delay the start until December.
The media consider that knowing this list is important for the sake of transparency and because otherwise it would go against the first constitutional amendment and they ask the court to order the Prosecutor’s Office to publish that list openly.
The list is not something “trivial neither for the process nor for the defendant”, they point out before recounting the legal background that supports their request.
The indictment against Trump was the result of an investigation conducted by special counsel Jack Smith.
Of the 37 charges against Trump, 31 are for deliberately withholding US defense-related documents, but he is also charged with obstructing justice and “corruptly” concealing documents or records.
Some of those crimes are punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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