Trump seeks delay in classified documents case, saying prosecutors mishandled evidence
CNN
Donald Trump’s attorneys have found a new reason to seek to delay the classified documents case: Some of the documents found in boxes at Mar-a-Lago have shifted out of order since FBI agents seized them two years ago.
Donald Trump’s attorneys have found a new reason to seek to delay the classified documents case: Some of the documents found in boxes at Mar-a-Lago have shifted out of order since FBI agents seized them two years ago. Trump’s attorneys indicated in a filing Monday that the shuffling of documents within boxes in evidence also could be grounds for the case to be tossed. They said they would file a motion to dismiss if the prosecution “cannot prove in a reliable way how it seized and handled the key evidence in the case, which will be a central issue at any trial.” In a brief order Monday, federal Judge Aileen Cannon paused the deadline the defendants faced this week for certain pretrial disclosures and said there would be a follow up order resetting pretrial deadlines and hearings. The order did not provide any further explanation. Special counsel Jack Smith’s office acknowledged in a recent court filing that, in at least some of the boxes obtained in the Mar-a-Lago search, the documents are now in a different order within each box than when the Justice Department first took custody of the boxes. “President Trump and counsel are deeply troubled to be learning of these facts approximately 11 months after the charges were filed in this case,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the filing. The disclosures by Smith’s office “raise questions about the investigation and the handling of evidence that must be addressed before the matter proceeds.” Trump was charged with mishandling national defense information after the FBI seized boxes in August 2022 from the Florida estate that contained documents with classified markings mixed in with other documents and personal effects of the former president. Trump and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty.