Reuters
Special Counsel Jack Smith, leftist and former President Donald Trump
CNN
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Special prosecutor Jack Smith told a federal judge Thursday that there was no reason to delay the trial date in the classified documents case. Donald TrumpA filed in court He aggressively rejected the reasons given by the former president and his co-defendant as to why the trial should be delayed.
Smith’s team, which is seeking a mid-December trial date, accused the defendants of giving a “misleading” picture of the amount of evidence handed over by prosecutors to the defendants in the case. Trump and his co-defendant, Walt Nauta He mentioned that more time is needed Check the evidence as a reason to push back the hearing date.
Prosecutors also argued against the advice of Trump and Nauta’s attorneys that they could not seat a fair jury before the 2024 election in order for Trump to return to the White House.
“Our jury system relies on the court’s authority to create a thorough and effective jury selection process, and on prospective jurors’ ability and willingness to decide cases based on evidence guided by the court’s legal guidelines,” the special counsel said. Filing said.
“Of course, the government readily acknowledges that the jury selection here may merit additional protocols (such as a questionnaire) and may take more time than in other cases, but those are reasons to start the process sooner.”
Trump faces allegations of willfully withholding national security information. He and Nautha are facing charges of allegedly hiding items and obstructing investigation into documents. Both defendants pleaded not guilty.
The new filings came ahead of Tuesday’s hearing in the case — the first ever U.S. District Judge Eileen CannonWho will lead the trial – Lawyers from each side will discuss how to handle the classified material in the case.
The involvement of sensitive government documents is one of many complications in the former president’s historic federal prosecution. But in a recent filing, the special counsel stood by his proposal that mid-December was a plausible date for the trial to begin.
Only two of the lawyers representing the defendants in the case have so far submitted the necessary forms to obtain security clearances, and the lawyers are required to provide confidential documents related to the case, prosecutors said.
“There is no basis in law or fact to proceed in such an unconvincing and open fashion, and the defendants have provided none,” the new Smith filing said.
Smith’s team also said that while 800,000 pages of discovery were turned over to the defense, a third of those pages were “non-content email header and footer information” and prosecutors said only 4,500 pages constituted a subset of the “key.” Documents in the case.
Trump and Nauta’s claims that nine months of CCTV footage was discovered by security teams to search were “false,” prosecutors said.
“The government only received footage from select cameras (many of which were not continuously recorded) on select dates throughout the period it received footage,” the filing said.
The special counsel’s filing Thursday sheds new light on how prosecutors plan to protect sensitive government information embedded in the case while meeting the government’s discovery obligations.
Smith said the “vast majority of classified records” obtained from Trump’s Florida resort will be accessible to the defense counsel once they receive interim security clearances. According to the new petition, the lawyers were ready to hand over the amount on July 10 if they got the interim clearance.
“However, to obtain an interim clearance, attorneys must first submit their Form SF-86 and supporting documents to the Litigation Defense Committee,” the filing said. “As of this filing, only two consultants have completed this work. The court has set a deadline till today.
Prosecutors plan to move the materials to a secure facility at the federal courthouse in Miami next week, according to the new filing, where defense counsel can review the documents once they receive interim clearances. Once the lawyers receive final clearance, the remaining classified documents will be brought to the facility for them to view. In addition, prosecutors will turn over some unclassified material next week that has yet to be produced, the filing said.
“Overall, neither the amount of invention classified in this case nor the timetable for its production is a reason for an indefinite extension of the trial date,” Smith’s filing said.
