Former President Donald Trump has put the judge and prosecution in his federal election interference trial on notice that he plans to present classified information in his defense when the case goes to trial.
On Aug. 1, Trump was indicted by special prosecutor Jack Smith on four felony counts related to his challenge of the 2020 presidential election results and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion.
On Thursday, the former president’s legal team filed a document as part of the pretrial jousting between his defense and Smith.
“The Indictment in this case adopts classified assessments by the Intelligence Community and others that minimized, and at times ignored, efforts by foreign actors to influence and interfere with the 2020 election,” the filing said.
“President Trump will offer classified information at trial relating to foreign influence activities that impacted the 2016 and 2020 elections, as well as efforts by his administration to combat those activities,” it said.
The filing said Trump will show that the intelligence community was biased against him.
“President Trump will also present classified information relating to the biased and politicized nature of the intelligence assessments that he and others rejected during the events in question,” it said.
“Collectively, this evidence will undercut central theories of the prosecution and establish that President Trump acted at all times in good faith and on the belief that he was doing what he had been elected to do,” the filing said.
Trump’s attorneys objected to redactions in classified documents submitted as part of pretrial discovery and the prosecution’s claim that they were of “limited” and “tangential” relevance.
The filing said that “‘the government appears to have looked with tunnel vision at limited issues it believed were relevant.’”
“The Office was wrong,” it said.
NEW: Looks like Trump is ready to turn the tables on DOJ/intelligence community for foreign interference in 2016 and 2020 elections in Jan 6 case. pic.twitter.com/q9xIJN5KJl
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) October 27, 2023
Last week, Trump had telegraphed that when he goes to trial he will have some “massive” information to share.
“Does anyone notice that the Election Rigging Biden Administration never goes after the Riggers, but only after those that want to catch and expose the Rigging dogs. Massive information and 100% evidence will be made available during the Corrupt Trials started by our Political Opponent,” he posted Oct. 20 on his Truth Social platform.
“We will never let 2020 happen again,” he said. “Look at the result, OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED.”
The indictment against Trump claims that he “did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with co-conspirators, known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted, and certified by the federal government.”
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“The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which those results are collected, counted, and certified,” the indictment said.
He was charged with four felony counts, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The federal election interference trial is one of four criminal cases against the leading 2024 GOP presidential contender. Trump faces another federal trial on allegations of mishandling classified information as well as an election interference and racketeering trial in Georgia and a trial in New York on charges of falsifying business records.
