Court papers filed by his lawyers, formally a request for discovery evidence, sounded at times more like political talking points.

Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump said in court papers filed on Tuesday night that they intended to place accusations that the intelligence community was biased against Mr. Trump at the heart of their defense against charges accusing him of illegally holding onto dozens of highly sensitive classified documents after he left office.

The lawyers also indicated that they were planning to defend Mr. Trump by seeking to prove that the investigation of the case was “politically motivated and biased.”

The court papers, filed in Federal District Court in Fort Pierce, Fla., gave the clearest picture yet of the scorched earth legal strategy that Mr. Trump is apparently planning to use in fighting the classified documents indictment handed up over the summer.

While the 68-page filing was formally a request by Mr. Trump’s lawyers to the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, to provide them with reams of additional information that they believe can help them fight the charges, it often read more like a list of political talking points than a brief of legal arguments.

Non-paywall link

  • @[email protected]
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    6310 months ago

    This is not going to go anywhere. “Because the intelligence community is against me” is not an answer to the charge, “Why did you knowingly keep government secrets, show them to people without clearance, lie about keeping them, and attempt to destroy evidence showing that you knew you had them?”

    These lawyers should be glad they have Canon as judge, because any other would be giving them sanctions for what is essentially just a political tirade.

    • @ChicoSuave
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      1110 months ago

      It’s a bold move by the narcissist to say “I didn’t break the rules, they just didn’t get out of my way!”

    • @stoly
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      10 months ago

      She’s already been spanked twice by the eleventh circuit and shows no signs of changing her behavior. She’ll abuse her position, she’ll be overruled and admonished again, rinse and repeat until sometime she just goes a little bit too far and gets in front of the SCOTUS for a discipline hearing.

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        I hope this isn’t just judicial system fan fiction, but most recent evidence suggests it will be.

        Sorry, it’s just been so hard not to be a pessimist about elections and the courts lately.

        • @stoly
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          110 months ago

          Fortunately the Court has an image problem now and the SCOTUS is really in to fixing that. I’m hopeful that some examples are made so that people can pat themselves on the back and go home while dreaming of how fair everything is now.

    • @Jimmyeatsausage
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      510 months ago

      They probably are against him…since its their job to protect what he stole.

  • @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    Yeah they were biased. He got handled with kid gloves because he was a former president. He deliberately took all of this stuff from the white house, even though he knew he wasn’t allowed to and that it was illegal. He was given years, multiple warnings, and many opportunities to comply with the law. He chose to lie to the national archives and the fbi repeatedly, continued to hide highly classified documents he stole in his damn bathroom at a beach resort. He even conspired with his staff to try and hide them from the fbi. And when the fbi one last time told him we know you have more, literally have your staff on video moving it around, give it up, he still lied! The national archives and fbi did everything possible to avoid having to seize it all back with a search warrant.

    If anyone belongs in jail for mishandling classified documents, it’s Trump. We probably don’t even know the worst of what he had stuffed away at Mar-a-Lago. The worst stuff doesn’t get disclosed to the court because they just can’t risk it leaking out even with court procedures to try and protect classified info.

  • BeautifulMind ♾️
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    1210 months ago

    Well maybe the intelligence community is gonna turn against you when you had access to info on sources and methods and those sources started turning up dead. Giving Trump access to classified material and not expecting him to monetize it for himself is insanity, really

  • @stoly
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    910 months ago

    It’s a stretch to go from “this was started over politics” to “and now you have to throw out all the evidence”. It’s basically what they are asking for.

    • @[email protected]
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      310 months ago

      I guess the strategy is that he’s an asshole to everyone so he can never be found guilty of anything because everyone is biased against him because he’s such an asshole.

    • @nomous
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      210 months ago

      Would be a shame if he wandered too close to a grassy knoll eh?

  • RubberDuck
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    710 months ago

    And in Florida he will get his venue for sure. The judge is a trump appointee who apparently wants to give him his platform.

    I’m very interested in the underlaying legal arguments they will make, but the … it’s all connected, and what about Joe… this is about not complying with a a repeated legal request/order to return document and then lying about it. Again it will be the cover up that will land someone in hot water, not the crime itself.

    He best not hope that SCOTUS rules a president has absolute immunity from prosecution before he is president, else POTUS only has one option given how much vengeance trump preaches.

  • gregorum
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    510 months ago

    2020 - S05E17 - Trumper, Traitor, Bully, Spy

    Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump said in court papers filed on Tuesday night that they intended to place accusations that the intelligence community was biased against Mr. Trump at the heart of their defense against charges accusing him of illegally holding onto dozens of highly sensitive classified documents after he left office. The lawyers also indicated that they were planning to defend Mr. Trump by seeking to prove that the investigation of the case was “politically motivated and biased.” The court papers, filed in Federal District Court in Fort Pierce, Fla., gave the clearest picture yet of the scorched earth legal strategy that Mr. Trump is apparently planning to use in fighting the classified documents indictment handed up over the summer. While the 68-page filing was formally a request by Mr. Trump’s lawyers to the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, to provide them with reams of additional information that they believe can help them fight the charges, it often read more like a list of political talking points than a brief of legal arguments.” - TV-MA, 61 mins

    SD, SHD, UHD, Dolby Vision; Dolby Stereo, Dolby Surround, Dolby Atmos

  • @carl_dungeon
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    510 months ago

    Someone should go after his asshole with a cactus

  • @[email protected]
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    310 months ago

    It is Judge Cannon in charge after all, she’s gonna give in to everything. This case is as good as dead, as frustrating as that is.

    • @stoly
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      310 months ago

      She’s already been reprimanded for her behavior by a conservative eleventh circuit. There’s a limit to their patience.

      • AutistoMephisto
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        210 months ago

        True. Also, openly taking a swing at spooks is not a good idea. One wrong move and next thing you know you’re unpersoned.

        • @TheJims
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          210 months ago

          Oh no how unfortunate that would be.

        • @[email protected]
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          110 months ago

          Not for Teflon Don.

          Remember the Russian investigation with Muller? Donnie Depends went after the FBI like crazy it was Peter Strozk this and Lisa Paige that, love birds, bias, bullshit… Wah wah wah the whole time.

          Literally nothing happened to him. He just had his lapdog Barr jump out ahead of the release of the findings to lie about them and the media ran with it.

          It’s all about public opinion, the turd in chief doesn’t give a damn what the courts think or the FBI, CIA, whatever. All he cares about is winning so he can remove all accountability from himself and hand Republicans a dictatorship after he croaks.

  • @[email protected]
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    210 months ago

    If there is anyone who can “handle” this situation without too much fallout it’s them. Here’s hoping.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    210 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    While the 68-page filing was formally a request by Mr. Trump’s lawyers to the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, to provide them with reams of additional information that they believe can help them fight the charges, it often read more like a list of political talking points than a brief of legal arguments.

    The nation’s spy services took center stage in the papers, given that intelligence officials are likely to testify at trial about what Mr. Trump’s lawyers called their “subjective assessments” of the more than 30 classified documents that the former president is accused of removing from the White House.

    Mr. Blanche and Mr. Kise said they planned to use “evidence relating to analytic bias harbored by the intelligence community” to undermine the prosecution’s contention that the documents Mr. Trump took with him were connected to issues of national defense.

    The filing additionally asked for information about one of Mr. Smith’s chief deputies, Thomas P. Windom, who has taken the lead in prosecuting the other federal case that Mr. Trump is facing — one in which he stands accused of plotting to overturn his 2020 loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

    The filing on Tuesday night was similar in tone and substance to a discovery request that Mr. Trump’s lawyers made in November in the election interference case, which is unfolding in Federal District Court in Washington.

    They also indicated that they intended to raise a host of distractions as part of their defense, saying they wanted to drag unrelated matters like the criminal prosecution of Mr. Biden’s son Hunter into the case.


    The original article contains 962 words, the summary contains 266 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!