There are five important exceptions to this rule where the trial court may hear the motion at any time: Where the defendant is charged with an offense.
Trump faces multiple criminal charges in the indictment, including willful retention of national defense information, false statements and representations, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record and corruptly concealing a document. Under rule 3.190 (c), Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, a Motion to Dismiss must be filed before or at a defendant’s arraignment, unless the court, in its discretion, grants additional time. Trump’s “transparent and persistent” efforts to delay the case also merit a finding of “frivolousness,” Smith said. Smith said adopting Trump’s immunity theory could lead to “sobering” outcomes, warning that under the former president’s position, a president could use the military to murder a political opponent or could “sell classified information to an adversary-and as long as he was not impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate, he could act with impunity.” Responding to Trump's “frivolous claim” to dismiss the case on presidential immunity grounds, Smith called on Cannon to deny the motion.
The filing was one of five briefs filed by prosecutors responding to Trump’s motions to dismiss the case, including his arguments that he is entitled to retain “personal” records under the Presidential Records Act, that he should be immune from prosecution for removing documents because he was still president at the time and that he is being selectively prosecuted, as well as because of the vagueness of the statute used in the charges.