Judge denies one motion from Trump to dismiss charges in classified documents case

The U.S. District judge presiding over former President Donald Trump's classified documents case denied his request for dismissal on Thursday. 

“Although the Motion raises various arguments warranting serious consideration, the Court ultimately determines, following lengthy oral argument, that resolution of the overall question presented depends too greatly on contested instructional questions about still-fluctuating definitions of statutory terms/phrases as charged,” Judge Aileen Cannon wrote in a ruling, according to CNN.

The former president was in the Florida courtroom where his attorneys argued for the case to be dismissed earlier in the day.

Trump's attorneys argued their client was entitled to keep classified documents when he returned to his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, arguing the Presidential Records Act gives him the authority to designate the documents as personal and keep them. 

Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and his team argued the files in question are presidential records, not personal ones, and that the act does not apply to classified and top-secret documents like those kept at his estate, according to the Associated Press.