Former President Donald Trump has accused special counsel Jack Smith of trying to support President Joe Biden’s campaign by making “lawless” requests to keep some evidence hidden that would otherwise reveal “unconstitutional, illegal, and unethical” conduct by investigators and prosecutors.
“The Special Counsel’s Office has repeatedly demonstrated that they believe themselves to be entitled to disclose selective details of this case to try to support President Biden’s campaign efforts,” President Trump’s attorneys wrote in their filing.
President Trump’s filing labels as “lawless” Mr. Smith’s various requests to redact or seal documents per the legal principle “that all materials subject to the Jencks Act must be filed under seal automatically.”
It also accuses Mr. Smith of resorting to sealed filings and ex parte proceedings (without the participation of defense counsel) which, if disclosed to the public, would “reveal unconstitutional, illegal, and unethical behavior by participants in the investigation and prosecution.”
A spokesperson for Mr. Smith told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the special counsel’s office would not comment on the matter. In earlier court filings, Mr. Smith has defended his sealing requests by saying it’s to protect witnesses from threats and harassment.
The former president, who faces 40 counts, has pleaded not guilty and has said on several occasions the case is a politically motivated bid to hamstring his presidential comeback bid.
More Details
President Trump’s latest filing is a response to Mr. Smith’s Feb. 8 motion asking the court to reconsider its denial of prosecutors’ earlier request to seal or redact certain material.“That discovery material, if publicly docketed in unredacted form as the Court has ordered, would disclose the identities of numerous potential witnesses, along with the substance of the statements they made to the FBI or the grand jury, exposing them to significant and immediate risks of threats, intimidation, and harassment,” the special counsel wrote in the filing.
Mr. Smith added that witnesses, law enforcement agents, judicial officers, and Department of Justice (DOJ) employees whose identities have been disclosed in cases involving President Trump have already faced threats, intimidation, and harassment.
The court’s order that Mr. Smith was asking it to reconsider would require the public identification of over two dozen people who participated in the investigation. The special counsel said that some of these individuals may never testify at trial and so would be able to stay anonymous if not for the court order.
Those who do testify are expected to provide “important” testimony, Mr. Smith said, arguing that they'll likely be subjected to threats, intimidation, and harassment if their identities are revealed.
President Trump’s attorneys objected to Mr. Smith’s request, though they did not oppose an extension of time to submit proposed unredacted submissions to allow the court to consider expected opposing motions by Mr. Smith’s team.
They said in the Feb. 23 filing that Mr. Smith’s latest “motion for reconsideration is more of the same,” meaning choosing to “disclose selective details of this case to try to support President Biden’s campaign efforts” while seeking to bury evidence that would reveal “unconstitutional, illegal, and unethical behavior” by investigators and prosecutors.
President Trump’s attorneys argued in the latest filing that Mr. Smith hasn’t proven that witnesses have been harassed or intimidated, and that his motion fails to establish good cause and violates the constitutional right of access to evidence.
They labeled as “false” Mr. Smith’s claim of a “well-document pattern in which judges, agents, prosecutors, and witnesses involved in cases involving Trump have been subject to threats, harassment, and intimidation.”
“They are seeking to redact the names and email addresses of government employees whose names and emails addresses have been disclosed in FOIA releases relating to the underlying investigation, and have offered no evidence that harassment resulted,” they wrote, asking the court to reject Mr. Smith’s motion for reconsideration.
More Secret Filings
In a separate document on Feb. 23, Mr. Smith said his office had filed more evidence, in secret and under seal, without the presence or notification of former President Donald Trump’s attorneys.President Trump has been charged with retaining national defense information, meaning that his case will be tried under the complex rules laid out in the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which governs how those documents can be used in court.
A CIPA Section 4 motion asks the judge to redact certain information from the classified documents that are turned over to the defense.
The seven-stage CIPA process is sequential, meaning that one stage has to be completed before going on to the next. A key issue is that a delay at one stage of the CIPA process can affect the entire trial schedule.
The former president’s legal team has argued that disclosure of evidence that Mr. Smith and his team have sought to keep secret by filing it under seal could prove that prosecution and the Biden administration have colluded to target President Trump.
President Trump’s attorneys have also said that Mr. Smith made only “vague claims” concerning witness safety and national security, arguing also that it’s “difficult to understand” how the case could even proceed if the court fully grants Mr. Smith’s request to keep some evidence hidden.
