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Washington — A federal judge in Florida denied former President Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss the classified documents indictment against him, ruling the Presidential Records Act (PRA) does not shield Trump from charges that he unlawfully retained national defense information. 

In a brief order issued Thursday, Cannon rejected Trump’s argument that a 1978 recordkeeping law used to manage official White House records during each presidential administration, the Presidential Records Act (PRA),  should prevent the special counsel’s case from moving forward. 

Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in a 40-count indictment that includes 32 alleged violations of a national security law known as the Espionage Act, which makes it illegal to mishandle national defense information. The FBI ultimately recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence over 300 sensitive government records, which prosecutors accused him of illegally keeping. 

Trump is charged with illegally retaining 32 of the records. He has pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing. 

Attorneys for the former president argued in their motion earlier this year that the PRA “precludes judicial review” over a president’s recordkeeping and that the PRA granted Trump “unreviewable discretion” over classified records.

In her order Thursday, Cannon noted the charges against Trump “make no reference to the Presidential Records Act,” and they don’t rely on the statute for any of the offenses with which Trump is charged. 

“The Superseding Indictment specifies the nature of the accusations against Defendant Trump in a lengthy speaking indictment with embedded excerpts from investigative interviews, photographs, and other content,” Cannon wrote. “Accepting the allegations of the Superseding Indictment as true, the Presidential Records Act does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss.”