Unconvinced Mar-a-Lago judge says it’s ‘difficult to see’ how Trump’s nod to George Washington can make Espionage Act indictment vanish

Donald Trump, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, special counsel Jack Smith

Left: Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File). Center: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon (U.S. Senate). Right: Special counsel Jack Smith (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File).

In yet another almost-replay of the arguments made before the lower court in Donald Trump’s long-stalled-out Mar-a-Lago case, a group of law professors, legal scholars and a public interest law firm are asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to let them file a brief as amici curiae (“friends of the court”) — on the defendant’s behalf.

On Tuesday, South Texas College of Law Professor Josh Blackman and Florida lawyer Michael Adam Sasso argued that legal scholar and Professor Seth Barrett Tillman, former prosecutor Robert W. Ray, and the conservative Landmark Legal Foundation should be allowed their say as special counsel Jack Smith looks to reanimate the prosecution.

In a motion for leave to file their brief, the attorneys say it is effectively their clients’ turn to catch the court’s ear — because two groups of pro-prosecution amici were allowed to file their own briefs late last month. And, they argue, this is not entirely unlike déjà vu: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon allowed all three groups to file briefs in the lower court case and she seriously considered each group during oral arguments.

“These amici advanced arguments that supplemented the positions taken by the Special Counsel and the Defendants,” the motion reads. “The District Court’s order cited these three amici. Now, as this case continues on appeal, assistance from amici continues. The constitutional lawyers have already filed their brief. And the Ray-Tillman-Landmark Amici now seek leave to file a brief.”

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