Special counsel Jack Smith recently stated in a new court filing that he’s opposed to the Trump camp’s latest request to disclose evidence in the former president’s classified documents case because disclosure would expose potential witnesses to danger.
“The defendants’ Motion is inconsistent with the process they proposed (and that the Court approved) for their supplemental reply brief,” Mr. Smith wrote in the Feb. 16 filing.
“And their request to disclose discovery materials should be denied for the same reasons the Government has explained elsewhere: doing so would unnecessarily expose potential witnesses to very real dangers of harassment, intimidation, and reprisal,” he added.
The basis for Mr. Smith’s most recent filing is a request made on February 15 by the legal team of former President Donald Trump, asking Judge Aileen Cannon to issue an order allowing the disclosure of the discovery materials. They contend that Mr. Smith’s request to keep the evidence secret is superseded by a “strong presumption of public access in criminal proceedings.”
The lawsuit accuses President Trump of mishandling confidential government information, and it names Walt Nauta, a former senior adviser, and Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of Mar-a-Lago, as co-defendants. They have all entered not guilty pleas.
President Trump’s team wants to reference and quote from an affidavit in support of a search warrant for Mr. De Oliveira’s email account, most of which Mr. Smith wants to keep hidden.
The Trump camp also intends to cite and paraphrase the grand jury evidence of a U.S. Secret Service agent and an FBI Special Agent regarding the extent of the search conducted on August 8, 2022, when federal officials stormed the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
Mr. Smith requests that all references to the grand jury transcripts’ content be removed from public files and that they be submitted under secret. Mr. Smith’s team challenges the email exhibit that the agent was shown, which contains a floor plan of the Mar-a-Lago estate. Additionally, President Trump’s attorneys want to refer to additional papers created by the U.S. Secret Service relating the Mar-a-Lago search.
