Former President Donald Trump’s legal team appears set to argue that U.S. intelligence agencies were out to get him, according to a new legal filing ahead of his case containing classified documents.
Trump has been charged by Special Counsel Jack Smith with 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.
That’s what Trump’s lawyers say in a motion filed Tuesday that they will challenge prosecutors’ claims that the estate where the documents were stored was not secure, in a case demanded by Trump after the election.
The defense team also said they are seeking communications between Smith’s team and associates of President Joe Biden in hopes of advancing their claims that the case involving classified documents is “politically motivated and biased” intended to undermine Trump’s 2024 campaign to harm.
The order, which asks a judge to force special counsel Jack Smith’s team to turn over a trove of information, offers the most comprehensive view yet of possible lines of defense in any of the four criminal cases Trump faces.
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team appears set to argue that U.S. intelligence agencies were out to get him, according to a new legal filing ahead of his case containing classified documents.
This is all happening as he tries to clinch the Republican nomination and reclaim the White House, a filing just a day after he won a landslide victory in the Iowa Caucus.
The filing offers a mix of legal analysis and political bombast that would be expected in the Trump team’s motions.
It even references Trump’s record victory this week, labeling the allegations as “partisan election interference.”
“The Special Counsel’s Office has ignored basic discovery obligations and DOJ policy in an effort to support the Biden Administration’s blatant efforts to weaponize the criminal justice system in pursuit of a goal that President Biden cannot achieve during the campaign: slowing down of President Trump’s leadership campaign in the 2024 presidential election,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
One of the requests in the filing includes information about Thomas P. Windom, a chief deputy to Smith who is leading the prosecution in another of Trump’s cases.
Trump’s lawyers said the National Archives contacted Windom in February 2022, indicating a conflict of interest.
They also want details about a security clearance that Trump retained from the Department of Energy after leaving 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 says it had no prior knowledge of the FBI’s August 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, where dozens of secret documents were recovered. took with him when he left the White House.
Trump has been charged by Special Counsel Jack Smith (pictured) with crimes related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and for hoarding classified documents that he moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.
A photo published by the US Department of Justice in their charging document against former US 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 says it had no prior knowledge of the FBI’s August 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
The search found dozens of classified documents that Trump took with him when he left the White House
Attorney General Merrick Garland months later appointed Smith special counsel in a way to try to protect the Justice Department from claims of political bias.
A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment Tuesday evening.
Prosecutors will have a chance to respond to the filing and will likely tell U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that many of the substantive defense attorneys are seeking irrelevant to the case.
Trump was charged with crimes in June 2023 in connection with the classified documents case. It was the first time a former president was charged federally by prosecutors.
Investigators alleged that Trump had thousands of pages of classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. Photos released by prosecutors show stacks of documents in boxes throughout Trump’s home.
He was charged in a historic hearing in a federal court in Florida, with Trump pleading not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors have said the documents he kept, refused to return and in some cases showed to visitors jeopardized not only relations with foreign nations but also the safety of troops and confidential sources.
But defense attorneys said in their motion that they plan to dispute allegations that “Mar-a-Lago was not safe and that there was a risk that materials stored in those buildings could be compromised.”
Trump was charged with crimes in June 2023 in connection with the classified documents case. It was the first time a former president was charged federally by prosecutors
They argued that prosecutors should be forced to make public any information related to what they previously described as “temporary secure locations” at Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties.
Lawyers argued that such evidence would refute prosecutors’ allegations because the Secret Service took steps to secure the homes and made arrangements for him to review and discuss classified information.
Trump’s lawyers also pointed to 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 on that, saying that evidence of post-presidential possession of a security clearance was relevant to possible arguments of “good faith and non-criminal state of mind regarding the possession of classified material.”
The case is currently scheduled for trial on May 20, but that date could be postponed.
Smith has previously said he hoped for a speedy trial, but Trump’s team said there was no need to rush.
The lawyers argued that the court should address “the potential inability to select an impartial jury during national presidential elections.”
His lawyers argued that a speedy trial is not practical.
“The government’s apparent position that these unprecedented issues should be adjudicated on an expedited basis is simply untenable and ignores the magnitude of this case,” the motion said.
The lawyers point out that they are all involved in defending Trump in other cases.
Prosecutors previously turned over 833,450 pages of documents, consisting of approximately 122,650 emails and 305,670 documents collected from more than 90 people.
They also gave Trump’s team 57 terabytes of compressed raw CCTV footage, and said more documents and video could follow.
Trump’s team said that given the security clearances required, they were unable to outsource the review of some of the material, as is standard procedure.
