When Trump’s Lawyers Were Alleged of Using 'Legally Flawed' Attempts to Delay Classified Documents Trial

Former president Donald Trump's legal defense team is under fire by the prosecutors in Washington for using flawed methods to delay one of his election subversion trials. The prosecutors called Trump's recent motions a scheme "by design" to "disrupt" and prolong deadlines in his election subversion case in Washington, D.C., per Law & Crime. The filings by the prosecutors are in response to motions filed by the former president's defense attorneys last week. 

One motion requests that presiding U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan extend the defense's existing Oct. 9 deadline for filing pretrial motions by 60 days, to a date in December, while a second move requests more time to study confidential materials supplied by the government before the trial.

Trump's legal team has argued that the pretrial motions extension is necessary because the defense lawyers need more time to investigate “executive immunity, failure to state a claim and improper conduct by the Special Counsel during the grand jury process” and “flawed legal theory.” Despite the existing briefing date of Oct. 9, the defense has yet to file any motions addressing these specific problems.

Smith's office's response, filed Monday, includes for the first time a section summarizing the "approximately 975 pages" of classified evidence that the defense has studied in the case, which includes a 761-page Department of Defense document that is essentially unclassified. The remaining information consists of a 52-page FBI document on a witness interview; a 12-page Defense Department document; a 118-page "classified transcript" and another secret document.

Smith's office also requested Chutkan in a separate filing on Monday to deny Trump's lawyers' motion for more time to file pretrial motions in the matter, per The Messenger. Trump's lawyers fail "to provide a basis for any extension," prosecutors stated. "And despite the defendant's claim to the contrary, granting the motion would substantially delay the pretrial schedule and, by design, disrupt the trial date."

Trump's primary legal strategy is to delay his criminal cases, maybe until after the election because he might have them dismissed were he to win. 

Trump's lawyers are also being accused of delaying the classified documents case in Washington D.C., where prosecutors are alleging Trump is attempting to disrupt the trial timeline by weaponizing the intricate government secrecy laws. “The Court invited the defendants to file a ‘motion to extend deadlines’,” the 15-page-long filing by the prosecutors said, per The Guardian. “Instead, defendant Donald J. Trump, joined by his co-defendants, filed a motion that threatens to upend the entire schedule established by the Court.”

The prosecution's petitions also put Cannon, a Trump appointee to another crucial early test. Cannon came under fire last year during the criminal probe after issuing a series of favorable decisions to the former president before her findings were overturned on appeal.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on October 5, 2023. It has since been updated.