Special Counsel Jack Smith has objected to the release of six documents to Donald Trump’s legal team in his federal classified materials case. Trump has pled not guilty to 40 federal charges related to claims he unlawfully retained classified documents after leaving the White House in January 2021 and obstructed efforts to return these papers to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. In August 2022, FBI agents raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago private members club, from which they recovered several classified documents.
Trump’s legal team filed a motion disputing prosecutors claims that the papers the former president held were not properly secured, demanding access to a range of documents, including communications between the prosecuting team and some of President Biden’s close associates. Smith said he had no objection to the release of many of the documents, but six needed to “remain sealed in full.” The papers Smith wants to keep sealed are listed as exhibits 2, 51, 61, 67, 68, and 69, the first three of which Trump’s team requested access to.
Smith’s team opposed Trump’s filing, called a motion for temporary leave to file redacted brief, “to the limited extent that the motions to compel or their exhibits identify any prospective Government witness, constitute Jencks Act material for the same, or contain certain additional discrete sensitive information.” Trump’s classified documents trial is scheduled to begin on May 20, but the Republican presidential frontrunner is seeking to get it postponed until after November’s elections. If Trump is reelected before the trial takes place, he may seek to get the charges dropped.
