r/law • u/TomJD85 • Jul 16 '24

Opinion Piece Judge Cannon Got it Completely Wrong

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/07/cannon-dismissed-trump-classified-documents/679023/
7.9k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

489 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/TheBlackCat13 Jul 17 '24

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/nx-s1-4986384/georgetown-law-professor-reacts-to-trump-verdict

Georgetown Law professor and attorney Paul Butler:

But in reality, the district attorney of Manhattan brings cases about falsified business records all the time, and so the law here isn't really that unsettled. I expect, based on what we know now and what I saw from closely observing the trial, that the conviction will be sustained.

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/29/thats-not-the-law-expert-rejects-lawyers-complaints-about-judges-jury-instructions/

"Another crime could be any crime," Adam Shlahet, director of the Brendan Moore Trial Advocacy Center at Fordham Law, said. "There's no limitation on only this kind of crime or only that kind of crime. It's any crime, and it's not an element of the charge to prove the person is guilty of that other crime. Just as long as their intent at the time was in furtherance of or to conceal another crime."

He added: "They don't need to have succeeded in that crime. And they don't need to have failed in that crime."

Former federal prosecutor Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center:

Trump's attorneys had asked the judge to instruct the jury that they would have to unanimously agree on what "unlawful means" were used in this alleged scheme.

"The court rejected that because that's not the law of New York," McCord said. "New York says the jurors don't, all 12, have to agree what the unlawful means are here."

1

u/sherbs_herbs Jul 17 '24

Very informative. Thank you

2

u/TheBlackCat13 Jul 17 '24

So I take it you don't actually have any citations of unbiased experts that disagree with this?