Former President Donald Trump requested information Monday he believes will expose the “politically motivated” nature of his indictment over alleged 2020 election interference, including communications about his case with “members, relatives, or associates” of the Biden administration and details about undercover informants at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
In a late-night 37-page filing, Trump’s lawyers argued that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office cannot blame the former president for Jan. 6 while “suppressing” evidence that supports his “good faith and absence of criminal intent,” such as “public and private statements” made by other prosecutors that contradict Smith’s claims that Trump is responsible for Jan. 6, information about security measures in place at the Capitol and “instances of undercovers and informants who infiltrated the crowd on that day.” Smith’s Aug. 1 indictment of Trump is “little more than partisan advocacy designed to sabotage President Trump’s leading campaign for the 2024 President Election,” they wrote.
“[T]he Special Counsel’s Office has chosen to rely on the views of witnesses who aligned with the Biden Administration’s political viewpoints, and to treat those biased opinions as objective and irrefutable truths regarding the integrity of the 2020 election and the events of January 6, 2021,” his lawyers wrote. “The problem with that approach is that President Trump and others—indeed, hundreds of millions of voters—are not obligated to accept at face value the Office’s politically motivated narrative.”
His lawyers argued that information about undercover agents at the Capitol is relevant “because it suggests that there were adequate controls in place and that the violence at issue resulted from a failure of those controls and/or failed sting operations rather than any directions from President Trump.”
Trump also requested various intelligence reports, specifically asking for findings of foreign interference efforts in the 2016 election, 2020 election and Jan. 6. This evidence would support his “defense that foreign actors caused and contributed to the circumstances at issue in this case.” (RELATED: Trump’s Lawyers Rip Jack Smith’s Defense Of Gag Order: ‘An Argument That Would Flunk First-Grade Math’)
HOUSTON, TEXAS – NOVEMBER 02: Republican presidential candidate former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Trendsetter Engineering Inc. on November 02, 2023 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
“The Office cannot blame President Trump for public discord and distrust of the 2020 election results while refusing to turn over evidence that foreign actors stoked the very same flames that the Office identifies as inculpatory in the indictment,” his lawyers wrote. “The Office cannot rely on selected guidance and judgments by officials it favors from the Intelligence Community and law enforcement while ignoring evidence of political bias in those officials’ decision-making as well as cyberattacks and other interference, both actual and attempted, that targeted critical infrastructure and election facilities before, during, and after the 2020 election.”
Trump also requested evidence relating to the investigation into Vice President Mike Pence’s retention of classified documents, which the DOJ’s National Security Division said in June no charges would be filed over. Potential criminal charges could provide Pence with “an incentive to curry favor with authorities by providing information that is consistent with the Biden Administration’s preferred, and false, narrative regarding this case,” his lawyers alleged.
The Special Counsel’s office declined to comment, noting that the court set a Dec. 11 deadline for the government’s response.
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