Trump lawyers request records from DOJ, Pence and Biden in Jan. 6 case
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump want access to internal government records and private communications related to the federal case against him in connection to the 2020 election, arguing in a lengthy Monday court filing that the information would shed light on Trump’s “good faith” efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.
“The indictment in this case reflects little more than partisan advocacy designed to sabotage President Trump’s leading campaign for the 2024 President[ial] Election,” attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche wrote of special counsel Jack Smith’s case.
“Consistent with that improper and unlawful goal, the 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.”
The 34-page motion to compel discovery asks for communications “by members, relatives, or associates of the Biden Administration” and evidence related to Pence’s retention of classified documents after leaving office.
The former vice president voluntarily handed over at least a dozen sensitive records to the Justice Department in January, with one other document discovered during an FBI search the following month.
Federal prosecutors never brought charges against Pence, but months later Smith’s office slapped Trump with a 37-count indictment for allegedly retaining national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
In August, Smith also indicted Trump, 77, on four counts related to his attempt to remain in power following his loss, with the special counsel’s team deposing Pence for any knowledge he had of efforts to throw out the electoral count.
“The potential criminal charges faced by Vice President Pence gave him 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,” Lauro and Blanche said of the chain of events.
While noting Trump’s belief that the election was “rigged” will be determined at trial, the lawyers allege Smith had attempted beforehand “to suppress and withhold from President Trump information that supports this defense.”
Lauro and Blanche also allege that Trump cannot be held “responsible” for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, since Smith’s office refuses to disclose critical information about security measures or the presence of supposed undercover “informants who infiltrated the crowd on that day.”
Prosecutors further ignored foreign influence campaigns by Russia, China and Iran and trusted in the biased assessment of US intelligence officials while ignoring cyberattacks “that targeted critical infrastructure and election facilities,” they say.
The filing was accompanied by hundreds of pages of supporting documentation, including US intelligence assessments on the security of the 2016 and 2020 elections as well as court records and directives about a suspected Russian hack that may have compromised government systems.
Other letters, from then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and Intelligence Community Analytic Ombudsman Barry Zulauf also allegedly show that US assessments about 2020 foreign election interference were “politicized.”
Even if the evidence is not admissible at trial, the Trump attorneys also demanded information about undercover federal informants at the US Capitol complex on Jan. 6, arguing the riotous “violence at issue resulted from a failure of those controls and/or failed sting operations rather than any directions from President Trump.”
A final exhibit in the court filings from an April 2022 opinion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court reveals “significant violations” for queries under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) “including several relating to the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol.”
“For the reasons already discussed, evidence that agents or analysts queried FISA databases because they suspected that the events of January 6 were influenced by foreign actors is favorable to President Trump because it suggests that, prior to this case, the government did not believe he was ‘responsible’ for incidents on that day,” Lauro and Blanche said.
Trump is the runaway front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination — and currently leading Biden
Reps for Smith’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
