Trump’s Lawyers Come Out Swinging, Accuse Jack Smith of Withholding Discovery, Seek to Delay Classified Docs Trial Until After Election

President Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday evening filed a motion seeking to delay Jack Smith’s May classified documents trial until after the 2024 election.

Trump attorneys Chris Kise and Todd Blanche accused Jack Smith’s prosecutors of using dilatory tactics to slow-roll the discovery process and taking too long to turn over evidence. Blanche and Kise said the May trial date makes the schedule “unworkable,” according to the motion reviewed by The Gateway Pundit.

“On July 18, 2023, the Special Counsel’s Office represented to the Court that “all” discovery would be available on “day one.”” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

Blanche and Kise also said Jack Smith’s Florida classified docs trial set for May 20 and his separate March 4 DC trial regarding Trump’s so-called effort to stop the transfer of power set for March 4 require “Trump and his lawyers to be in two places at once.”

“The March 4, 2023 trial date in the District of Columbia, and the underlying schedule in that case, currently require President Trump and his lawyers to be in two places at once,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, according to CBS News. “And, months after the Office’s representation to the Court, discovery is not complete in this case—including with respect to the classified documents at issue in more than 25% of the [Espionage Act] counts in the Superseding Indictment.”

Of course, this was Jack Smith’s plan all along. Make it impossible for Trump’s lawyers to navigate between Washington DC and Florida by scheduling court dates on top of each other.

The attorneys said the classification reviews and most basic discovery have not been handed over by DOJ prosecutors.

“These are not mere ‘complaints.’ The Special Counsel’s Office has not provided some of the most basic discovery in the case,” the attorneys wrote. “Given the current schedule, we cannot understate the prejudice to President Trump arising from his lack of access to these critical materials months after they should have been produced.”

Blanche and Kise, who previously sought security clearances to review classified material in this case, argued the special counsel hadn’t even provided basic arrangements for handling the classified documents.

“The Special Counsel’s Office has failed to make very basic arrangements in this District for the handling of the relevant classified information, the holding of necessary CIPA hearings, and the production of related work products by the court and counsel,” the lawyers wrote in the 12-page filing.

CBS News reported:

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are asking to delay his May trial in the case involving his alleged mishandling of sensitive government documents until after the 2024 presidential election.

In a filing with the federal district court in South Florida submitted late Wednesday, lawyers Chris Kise and Todd Blanche accused special counsel Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors of taking too long to turn over material that was collected during their investigation. They argued the current schedule is “unworkable,” given the status of discovery, lack of necessary secure facilities and litigation under the Classified Information Procedures Act, which governs how classified material is being used in the case.

The defense attorneys said the schedule for the case in Fort Pierce, Florida, conflicts with the proceedings for a separate case in Washington, D.C., brought by the special counsel regarding Trump’s alleged efforts to thwart the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the documents case, scheduled the trial to begin May 20.

Jack Smith recently indicted Trump on 37 federal counts in Miami in the classified documents case.

Trump was charged with 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information and 6 other process crimes stemming from his conversations with his lawyer.

In July Jack Smith hit Trump with 3 additional charges in a superseding indictment in the classified documents case.

In August Jack Smith charged Trump in the January 6 investigation in DC.

Trump was hit with 4 counts: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.