Throughout the past seven years, Trump has cast the intelligence community as...

Trump is asking a judge to force the special counsel’s office to turn over records from the intelligence community that he wants to use at trial for the Jan. 6 case, where he faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

What Trump wants includes reports on damage wrought by Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and threats to the 2020 election. It’s part of a series of defenses which Trump wants to raise at trial aimed at debunking a core position of Special Counsel Jack Smith: that Trump spread lies about breaches in 2020 election because he was “motivated by a desire to maintain office and undertaken with specific intent and unlawful purpose,” his attorneys wrote in the request.

  • FuglyDuckEnglish
    5•11 months ago

    I can’t speak to the consequences, but wikipedia has this to say:

    Graymail is the threatened revelation of state secrets in order to manipulate legal proceedings. It is distinct from blackmail, which may include threats of revelation against, and manipulation of, any private individual. Graymail is used as a defense tactic, forcing the government to drop a case to avoid revealing national secrets.
    …
    In the United States, the Classified Information Procedures Act of 1980, also known as the Graymail Law, was designed to counter the second tactic above by allowing judges to review classified material in camera, so that the prosecution can proceed without fear of publicly disclosing sensitive intelligence.[2]

    the ‘second tactic’ is what trump is doing here- demanding access to classified documents to use in his defense. wiki notes that it worked for Oliver North and Kathrine Gun.

    Wiki has this to say about the graymail law:

    The primary purpose of CIPA was to limit the practice of graymail by criminal defendants in possession of sensitive government secrets. “Graymail” refers to the threat by a criminal defendant to disclose classified information during the course of a trial. The graymailing defendant essentially presented the government with a “dilemma”: either allow disclosure of the classified information or dismiss the indictment.

    So, from Trump’s perspective, at best, the judge is going to be forced to slog through intelligence that’s nominally related. At worst, it pisses the judge off. Either way, it’s a delay… and that’s most of trump’s legal strategy right there.

    edit: ROFL. CIPA was sponsored by then-senator Biden… take that where you might.