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Washington
CNN
—
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office is investigating how the federal government sought the recovery of White House recordings taken by President Donald Trump during President Joe Biden’s presidency, and how the case led to a federal investigation. I am defending my progress.
The voluminous 67-page filing details the conflict with President Trump as a way to “set the record straight” about the origins of the Mar-a-Lago documents scandal, prosecutor Smith said, aiming to preserve the case. I’m fighting. The case is on track for a spring trial.
After the August 2022 raid on President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Florida mansion, federal investigators sought information from intelligence agencies, the National Archives, and other federal departments before filing criminal charges. The company called for a “careful and thorough investigation.” The Office of the Special Counsel announced that it suspects President Trump mishandled documents.
Prosecutors allege that Trump’s lawyers tried to skew the case in his favor, including by claiming that Trump had a security clearance beyond his presidential term. He persuaded a federal judge in Florida to force the Justice Department to turn over more documents as evidence in the case from several sensitive branches of the federal government, including the Biden White House, the Department of Energy and the U.S. intelligence community. I’m trying to convince you.
The filing said Friday’s restatement of the prosecutor’s investigation is based on documents already provided to Mr. Trump’s defense team that could be used as evidence in a future trial against Mr. Trump.
“Federal agencies were faced with an extraordinary situation caused entirely by the defendant’s conduct and responded appropriately,” prosecutors wrote.
“The law required the collection of these documents,” prosecutors also said in their filing.
The controversy over what happened dates back to the final days of Trump’s presidency and the early days of Biden’s administration, when it became clear to federal agencies and Trump’s agents that boxes of presidential documents were missing.
Specifically, prosecutors said that then-White House lawyer Jonathan Su, who worked under Biden, met with Trump aides and the National Archives, which was in charge of presidential records after he took office, and revealed that the He claims to have had discussions with Trump aides at a time when he had to coordinate discussions about the president’s record, which was publicly disclosed.
President Trump has sought to argue that Su’s involvement and his successor’s White House role in discussions about the president’s record were inappropriate. But prosecutors said in a written statement Friday that Trump’s team “not only knew but approved” that the Biden White House was participating in discussions.
“The White House Office of Counsel became involved because there was a need to consult with staff regarding the loss of presidential records from the Trump administration,” prosecutors said Friday.
Then, when President Trump’s White House returned presidential records to the National Archives in early 2022, archivists discovered classified records among them, prompting them to contact the Justice Department and launch a criminal investigation. Ta.
Trump took issue with the Justice Department’s handling of the investigation, and after leaving office, he accused various agencies of working together to smear him.
The special counsel’s office insisted Friday that the development of the case followed Justice Department protocol, including how White House officials spoke with Justice Department officials.
“The record simply shows that various government agencies with specific portfolios and responsibilities are working to solve increasingly vexing and alarming problems,” prosecutors said. “Defendants’ legal problems are solely of their own making.”
Mr. Smith’s team said it had reviewed all records and found no evidence that Mr. Trump retained a security clearance after leaving office (though his lawyers claim he did).
Trump’s lawyers have argued that the former president maintained a security clearance from the Department of Energy, which is responsible for the nation’s nuclear arsenals, after leaving office, underscoring the argument that he was acting in good faith. He argued that there is a possibility of corroborating the “Non-Criminal Mental Condition for Possession of Confidential Material” (Mar-a-Lago).
Prosecutors produced a memorandum from the Energy Department’s assistant attorney general that said Trump had high-level security clearances called Q clearances related to his “missions” as president, but that “Mr. ended at the end of 2019.” his presidency. ”
President Trump’s name remained in the DOE’s database as having received a Q-authorization in error after his term ended, and when DOE officials learned of the mistake, it was “belatedly updated to reflect that reality,” the legal department said. The advisor wrote in a memo.
“But even if President Trump’s Q-clearance were valid, that fact would not allow President Trump to take documents containing the information subject to clearance home and store them in his basement or elsewhere at Mar-a-Lago. “It does not give the right to keep it,” the prosecutor said. I have written. “Q clearance holders do not have the authority to remove documents from proper storage and keep them for themselves. Furthermore, possession outside the premises is not permitted.”
In addition, prosecutors conducted searches from the Scattered Castle database, which records security clearances maintained by intelligence agencies, and the Department of Defense database. Prosecutors wrote that the search “revealed that Mr. Trump’s security clearance, past or present, was not obtained.”
The documents are part of more than 1.28 million pages of unclassified documents provided by prosecutors to Trump’s lawyers in the classified documents case.
These documents include key records from the investigation, surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago, information that defense attorneys could use to impeach potential trial witnesses, and information that could be used to “access classified information at related facilities.” Contains records regarding “Safe Facilities that Can Be Used.” During President Trump’s term. ”
The special counsel team also turned over a large amount of information regarding the Aug. 8, 2022, raid at Mar-a-Lago. That information includes the FBI’s search operation plan, a series of detention reports, and a description of the investigation, prosecutors wrote. Evidence seized, surveillance camera footage from the day of the raid, correspondence from Trump Organization and Mar-a-Lago employees from the same day, photographs taken during the raid, an inventory of documents found at the facility, FBI documents confiscated.
According to prosecutors, the defense has disclosed secret information, including plans to strengthen Mar-a-Lago’s security, records of Mar-a-Lago’s security violations, and the fact that “approximately 48,000 guests have visited the Mar.” They say they have access to a significant amount of records of the service. -a-Lago said classified documents were on the premises from January 2021 to May 2022, but “only 2,200 people’s names were checked and only 2,900 people passed the magnetometer.” ”.
In addition, prosecutors turned over “all discoverable material in the possession of the National Archives” and “all discoverable material resulting from contact between law enforcement agencies and FBI headquarters.”
Prosecutors have argued in filings that Trump and his co-defendants in the case are not entitled to the inside government information the former president is seeking as part of discovery, and that the investigation team is not entitled to it. It claims that it is protected by law as a work product. Prosecutor.
In a mid-January filing, Trump’s lawyers argued that the Biden administration “took steps to create a false pretense of distance from the investigation,” and that they had access to White House records and intelligence agencies from the Biden administration. I asked for access to the records.
However, prosecutors countered that many of the specific requests from Mr. Trump’s team “request evidence from agencies that are not part of the prosecution team, such as NARA, the White House, and the intelligence community.”
Additionally, “officials from the National Security Council, the Office of the White House Counsel, the Office of Records Management, and other members of the White House will not participate in any interviews (other than witnesses) and will present the case to the grand jury; He did not accompany the prosecutor,” he added. Participated in all court proceedings and played some role in developing prosecution strategy. ”
Additionally, the intelligence community “played no investigative role in this case” and was not part of the prosecution team, the filing said.
Smith’s team also said some of the evidence Trump is looking for either doesn’t exist or isn’t in prosecutors’ possession.
There has been no communication between prosecutors and Biden or other White House political officials regarding the investigation or anything else, according to the filing.
“To be clear, defendants’ demands are premised on a false story,” prosecutors wrote in response to Trump’s claims that the Justice Department was targeting him for political purposes. .
Prosecutors further stated that “the investigation and prosecution of this case was not motivated by any political bias and was conducted properly based on the facts and the law.”
Mr. Smith’s team also argued that Mr. Trump should not be allowed to use this selective prosecution argument as part of his defense at trial because this is a matter for a judge, not a jury, to decide. .
“A well-settled proposition is that claims of selective prosecution have no place in court,” the prosecutors wrote.
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