legalese puts me to sleep, can someone give me cliffs on what this means? What is PRA (issue)?
In simple terms, the judge asked the two sides to provide her with briefs on which of two options for jury instructions they want her to use. First, this is not uncommon. Judges often ask both sides in cases like this to offer possible instructions for juries to hear before they deliberate. Judge Cannon has implied she thinks the laws involved are vague and she even considered dismissing the case based on the vagueness of the laws. Instead she decided to leave it to the jury to decide but to do so she needs to tell the juries something. Hence the two options. What is unusual is the request for jury instructions is very early considering there still is not a trial date set yet.
The problem for Democrats is that both options favor the president's case. The first option asks the jury to decide if the government proved that documents Trump took were personal or official based the the presidential records act. This implies she thinks only the president can determine of the records he keeps are personal or not - which mirrors the decision of the judge in the Clinton tapes case.
The second option goes even further and states that the president has sole authority to determine which records are personal and which are official and that no judge or jury can question this authority. If she gives the jury this instruction she might as well dismiss the case.
I am sure the government would like to tell the jury and all they have to prove is that Trump possessed documents after he left office to be guilty. If Jack Smith argues this, I suspect the judge will ask him why was Hillary and Joe Biden not prosecuted if that is all that is required to be in violation of the law?
Honestly, if not for the politics, this case would have already been dismissed. The Fani Willis hoax too. The judges seem afraid to do what they should be doing because of the media backlash they expect will come their way if they do the right thing.
