Former President Donald Trump’s legal team looks set to claim US intelligence agencies were out to get him, according to a new legal filing ahead of his classified documents case.
Trump has been charged by Special Counsel Jack Smith on crimes related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and for hoarding classified documents he moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.
Lawyers for Trump said in a motion filed Tuesday that they will dispute prosecutors’ allegations that the estate where the records were stored was not secure, in a case Trump has demanded be pushed to after the election.
The defense team also said that they are seeking communication between Smith’s team and associates of President Joe Biden in hopes of advancing their claims that the classified documents case is ‘politically motivated and biased,’ designed to harm Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The brief, which asks a judge to compel special counsel Jack Smith’s team to turn over a trove of information, offers the most expansive view yet of potential lines of defense in one of the four criminal cases Trump faces.
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team looks set to claim US intelligence agencies were out to get him, according to a new legal filing ahead of his classified documents case
This is all happening as he seeks to capture the Republican nomination and reclaim the White House, with the filing entered just a day after he won a landslide victory in the Iowa Caucus.
The filing offers a blend of legal analysis and political bombast that has come to be expected in Trump team motions.
It even references Trump’s record victory this week and decries the charges as ‘partisan election interference.’
‘The Special Counsel’s Office has disregarded basic discovery obligations and DOJ policies in an effort to support the Biden Administration’s egregious efforts to weaponize the criminal justice system in pursuit of an objective that President Biden cannot achieve on the campaign trail: slowing down President Trump’s leading campaign in the 2024 presidential election,’ Trump’s lawyers wrote.
One of the filing’s requests includes information on Thomas P. Windom, a chief deputy of Smith’s who leads the prosecution in one of Trump’s other cases.
Trump’s lawyers said that the National Archives reached out to Windom in February 2022, suggesting a conflict of interest.
They also want details on a security clearance that Trump held on to from the Department of Energy after he left the White House, which lawyers say could help Trump defend himself.
Despite Trump’s repeated claims, there is no evidence of any coordination between the Justice Department and the White House, which has said it had no advance knowledge of the FBI’s August 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate that recovered dozens of classified documents he had taken with him when he left the White House.
Trump has been charged by Special Counsel Jack Smith (pictured) on crimes related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and for hoarding classified documents he moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago
A photo published by the U.S. Justice Department in their charging document against former U.S. President Donald Trump shows boxes of documents stored in a bathroom at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida
Despite Trump’s repeated claims, there is no evidence of any coordination between the Justice Department and the White House, which has said it had no advance knowledge of the FBI ‘s August 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate
The search recovered dozens of classified documents Trump had taken with him when he left the White House
Attorney General Merrick Garland months later appointed Smith as special counsel as a way to try to insulate the Justice Department from claims of political bias.
A spokesman for Smith declined to comment Tuesday night.
Prosecutors will have a chance to respond to the filing and are likely to tell U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that much of the material defense lawyers are seeking is not relevant to the case.
Trump was charged in June 2023 with felonies in connection to the classified document case. It was the first time a former president had been federally charged by prosecutors.
Investigators alleged Trump had thousands of pages of classified documents at his Florida Mar-a-Lago home. Photos released by the prosecution show piles of documents in boxes throughout Trump’s home.
He was arraigned in a Florida federal court in a historic hearing as Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors have said the documents he stowed, refused to return and in some cases showed to visitors risked jeopardizing not only relations with foreign nations but also the safety of troops and confidential sources.
But defense lawyers said in their motion that they intend to dispute allegations that ‘Mar-a-Lago was not secure and that there was a risk that materials stored at those premises could be compromised.’
Trump was charged in June 2023 with felonies in connection to the classified document case. It was the first time a former president had been federally charged by prosecutors
They argued that prosecutors should be forced to disclose all information related to what they have previously described as ‘temporary secure locations’ at Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties.
Lawyers contended that such evidence would refute prosecutors’ allegations because the Secret Service took steps to secure the residences and made arrangements for him to review and discuss classified information.
Trump’s attorneys also referenced what they said was an Energy Department action in June, after the charges were filed, to ‘retroactively terminate’ a security clearance for the former president.
They demanded more information about that, saying evidence of a post-presidential possession of a security clearance was relevant for potential arguments of ‘good-faith and non-criminal states of mind relating to possession of classified materials.’
The case is currently scheduled for trial on May 20, but that date may be pushed back.
Smith has previously said he hoped for a swift trial, but Trump’s team said there was no reason for haste.
The lawyers argued the court needs to address ‘the potential inability to select an impartial jury during a national Presidential election’.
His attorneys contended a speedy trial is not practical.
‘The Government’s apparent view that these unprecedented issues should be adjudicated on an expedited basis is simply untenable and ignores the magnitude of this case,’ the motion states.
The lawyers point out that they are all involved in defending Trump in other cases.
Prosecutors have previously handed over 833,450 pages of documents, consisting of approximately 122,650 emails and 305,670 documents gathered from over 90 people.
They have also given Trump’s team 57 terabytes of compressed raw CCTV footage, and said there could be more documents and video coming.
Trump’s team said they were unable, as is standard procedure, to outsource the review of some of the material, given the required security clearances.