Judge orders a new hearing on excluding evidence in classified documents case

June 27 (UPI) -- The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents case ruled Thursday for an additional hearing on whether to exclude evidence underpinning the government's obstruction of justice charges.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 41 counts related to the retention of classified documents and efforts to obstruct the federal investigation. Those obstruction charges hinge on information obtained from a Trump lawyer showing the former president was knowingly trying to thwart the Department of Justice's attempts to retrieve the classified documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Last year, a judge ruled the Justice Department can pierce client-lawyer confidentiality under the crime-fraud exception as the attorney's assistance was obtained in furtherance of a criminal or fraudulent act.

But Judge Aileen Cannon ruled Thursday for an additional evidentiary hearing to re-examine evidence supporting the prosecution's use of the crime-fraud exception due to "pertinent factual disputes."

The 11-page ruling represents a legal victory for the former president, and at the very least, will further protract an already lengthy trial, which appears to be his legal team's strategy.

Based on Cannon's ruling, Special counsel Jack Smith who indicted the former president had argued Tuesday against the additional evidentiary suppression hearing by stating it would devolve into a "mini trail."

But Cannon, a Trump appointee, rebutted that "there is a difference between a resource wasting and a delay-producing 'mini-trial' ... and an evidentiary hearing geared to adjudicating the contested factual and legal issues on a given pre-trial motion to suppress."

She added that the two sides can confer on the scope of the hearing and Smith can request the court to impose "reasonable limitations on the evidence produced."

"But it is an evidentiary hearing nonetheless," she wrote in italics for emphasis.

In her ruling Thursday, Cannon also rejected Trump's ask for a hearing concerning false statements or omissions in the search warrant that supported the August 2022 FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago.

Cannon noted that Trump's legal team identified four omissions in the warrant but stated "none of the omitted information -- even if added to the affidavit in support of the warrant -- would have defeated a finding of probable cause."

Trump is accused of illegally retaining classified documents after leaving office.

The former president was convicted late last month by a jury on all 34 counts in an election interference and business fraud case. He was found guilty of falsifying business records to pay off a porn star to keep their alleged affair from the public ahead of the 2016 election, which he won.

He faces up to four years imprisonment when he is sentenced on July 11

He also faces federal and state charges in other cases for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election.