Trump judge throws out ex-president’s first attempt to dismiss Mar-a-Lago case

A federal judge appointed to the bench by Donald Trump has rejected one of his attempts to dismiss criminal charges stemming from his retention of classified documents stashed at his Mar-a-Lago property.

Just hours after she heard arguments in a federal courtroom in Florida, US District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed his lawyers’ arguments that 32 charges against the former president under the Espionage Age are unconstitutionally “vague”.

The resolution of the defence’s question “depends too greatly on contested instructional questions about still-fluctuating definitions of statutory terms/phrases as charged, along with at least some disputed factual issues as raised in the motion,” she wrote.

Judge Cannon did, however, leave open the possibility that a jury could consider the “vagueness” argument at trial.

The former president faces a 40-count indictment alleging violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction, and the illegal removal of federal records. His legal team’s motions to dismiss the case add to a growing list of attempts to evade the 91 criminal charges against him in four separate criminal cases in four jurisdictions.

His attorneys also argued to dismiss the case on Thursday on Presidential Records Act grounds.

Mr Trump’s legal team has filedseveral other motions to dismiss charges in the Mar-a-Lago case, including invoking a presidential “immunity” claim. The judge has not yet set a schedule to hear seven others.

The application of the Espionage Act – which prohibits the willful retention of national defence information – is “unconstitutionally vague” and the term “national defence information” is too broad, according to Mr Trump’s attorneys.

But “Trump fails to explain how his prior status as an original