His [Trump’s] legal team’s submission states that, between the classified information on foreign interference and biased intelligence reports, “this evidence will undercut central theories of the prosecution and establish that President Trump acted at all times in good faith and on the belief that he was doing what he had been elected to do.”

The submission notes that Smith has argued in legal submissions earlier in October that “the classified discovery issues” in this case are “limited,” “tangential,” “narrow” and “incidental” because “the charges … do not rely on classified materials.”

In his submissions, Smith references the 2020 Russian case several times as an example of why the U.S. government must be guarded in handing over classified documents to defense lawyers.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    At the time, the Justice Department dropped the charges rather than hand over the highly classified documents to the Russians’ defense team, citing “a risk of exposure of law enforcement’s tools and techniques.”

    Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team filed a classified response on Friday opposing Trump’s attempts to obtain the documents.

    Smith team member Thomas P. Windom notified Chutkan on Friday that prosecutors have submitted their motion to block Trump’s request to a classified information security officer, who then stores it until the judge is ready to review it.

    His legal team’s submission states that, between the classified information on foreign interference and biased intelligence reports, “this evidence will undercut central theories of the prosecution and establish that President Trump acted at all times in good faith and on the belief that he was doing what he had been elected to do.”

    They were partially owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late St. Petersburg businessman and founder of the Wagner mercenary group, then one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies.

    The indictment detailed activities of an operation called the Internet Research Agency, in which Russians in a St. Petersburg office building were accused of impersonating Americans on social media in an attempt to disrupt the 2016 presidential election between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.


    The original article contains 865 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m pretty sure that Trump’s and his henchmen’s have an attorney that has clearance.

      They should be able to show the documents to that attorney without much risk.

      I realize that Judge Cannon is going to decide that the government must either give up the lives of US spys or set Trump free because she is a fucking traitor.

      But there are other options.