Trump requests postponing Mar-a-Lago classified documents case claiming prosecutors mishandled evidence

FORT PIERCE, FLORIDA: Former President Donald Trump's legal team has provided a new reason to postpone the classified documents case.

Per CNN, Trump’s attorneys claim that some of the documents found at Mar-a-Lago have been moved out of order since FBI agents seized them two years ago.

In a filing on Monday, Trump's attorneys indicated that the shuffling of documents within evidence boxes could potentially be grounds for dismissing the lawsuit.

In the event that 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," they are considering filing a motion for the case to be tossed.

What did Judge Aileen Cannon rule on Monday?

On Monday, Judge Aileen Cannon issued a brief order that suspended the deadline for certain pretrial disclosures that the defendants were required to make this week. The order also stated that a follow-up order would be issued to reset pretrial deadlines and hearings. Unfortunately, the order did not provide any further explanation.

In a recent court filing, Special Counsel Jack Smith's office acknowledged that the order of documents in some of the boxes obtained during the Mar-a-Lago search had been altered, claiming that these boxes are now in a different order within each box than when the Justice Department first took custody of them.

Trump’s attorneys wrote in the filing, “President Trump and counsel are deeply troubled to be learning of these facts approximately 11 months after the charges were filed in this case.”

The disclosures by Jack Smith’s office “raise questions about the investigation and the handling of evidence that must be addressed before the matter proceeds.”

Former President Donald Trump has been charged with mishandling national defense information, following the seizure of boxes from his Florida estate in August 2022.

The documents contained classified information, which was mixed with other documents and personal effects. Trump and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The boxes have undergone several reviews, including one that was requested by Trump himself. The prosecutors noted in their court filing that a special master was appointed by Cannon in 2022 to review the seized documents and determine what should be withheld from investigators, due to privilege issues.

The order of the documents could be crucial to the defense of Trump and his co-defendants. Currently, defense lawyers are requesting delays, citing that the revelation has disrupted their trial preparations.

What did Donald Trump’s attorneys claim in their court filings on Monday?

In Monday’s court filing, the attorneys representing former President Trump claimed that they relied on the order of the classified material within the boxes during their review of the documents as part of the discovery process.

The attorneys contended that, at that time, the classified material was "buried within the boxes," which could potentially exonerate Trump of any wrongdoing.

Furthermore, the attorneys stated that they understood the classified material was found adjacent to items that “provided favorable context” around the time the document was placed in the box.

When the boxes were initially seized in 2022, DOJ attorneys, separate from the investigative team, scrutinized them for privileged materials.

Subsequently, investigators reviewed the boxes, and classified documents were removed and replaced with a placeholder sheet.

As part of the special master process ordered by Judge Cannon, the contents of the boxes were scanned to create inventories of their contents.

According to prosecutors, in response to a request from Trump's co-defendant, Walt Nauta, last week that certain pre-trial deadlines be postponed, the documents and placeholder sheets remained within the boxes in which they were discovered.

However, the lawyers claimed, “There are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans.”

The defendants were required to inform the court by Thursday what classified materials they planned to use as part of their defense.

However, Nauta and Trump contended that they could not meet the deadline due to the evidence snag.

Nauta has previously argued that prosecutors have not adequately demonstrated that the boxes he is accused of moving out of a Mar-a-Lago storage room contained the classified documents that investigators sought in a May 2022 subpoena.

Special Counsel Jack Smith argued that Nauta's ability to meet this week's deadline, which Judge Cannon has since removed, should not be impacted by the fact that some of the documents are out of order within each box.