- Trump’s legal team filed a motion Monday arguing ex-president had legit reasons to questions 2020 election results
- Demands communications and ‘coordination’ between Biden’s family and team with the Justice Department
- Comes as Hunter offered to testify in Congress in father’s impeachment probe
Donald Trump‘s legal team filed a document Monday arguing the ex-president had a legitimate ‘good faith’ basis to question the results of the 2020 election results.
The long-shot filing also demanded government prosecutors to turn over communications between President Joe Biden and his family members with the Justice Department.
Trump’s lawyers, led by Todd Blanche and John Lauro, claim in the filing that the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021 could have resulted from ‘failed sting operations rather than any directions from President Trump.’
While raising all of these arguments, the main objective of the filing seems to be to further delay the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Trump accusing him of plotting to undermine the federal government and obstruct congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election.
The demands in the latest filing include more than 70 pages of legal motions along with 300 pages of supporting exhibits.
It argues for leeway in the request to force special counsel Jack Smith and his prosecution team to turn over a wide-range of information and documents, including communications between the DOJ with President Biden, his relatives and administration members and associates.
The defense made 59 requests including the identification of ‘informants and other undercover operatives’ involved in the January 6 Capitol attack as well as information regarding security measures carried out that day.
It also demands assessments of cyberattacks and other interference in the 2020 election – whether actual or attempted.
And it claims as evidence that Trump had legitimate questions about the 2020 election that the January 6 committee acknowledged that ‘Russia, China, and Iran . . . engage, to varying degrees, in disguised efforts to influence U.S. public opinion’ specifically in U.S. elections.
It notes that the DOJ and Department of Homeland Security report ‘acknowledges ‘[b]road Russian and Iranian campaigns’ that ;did compromise the security of several networks that managed some election functions.’
Additional requests for communications between Biden and his circle are made under the defense’s allegations that Trump is a victim of political persecutions because he is the president’s primary rival in his 2024 reelection bid.
Trump’s lawyers, therefore, claim the prosecution must turn over any information related to communication or ‘coordination’ by the DOJ with the Biden administration and his family – including his 53-year-old son Hunter.
They are also seeking information about the DOJ’s interactions with former Vice President Mike Pence. The filing suggests that Pence, a key witness in the case, aligned his story with the prosecution in order to avoid charges after classified documents were found at his home in the wake of the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property to recover similar documents and materials.
The DOJ closed Pence’s case without charges.
Meanwhile, one of the four felony prosecutions Trump is facing this year is related to his mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
Along with the election and documents cases, Trump is also facing a case in Georgia related to his efforts to obstruct the state’s 2020 election results, as well as a New York state case accusing him of business fraud and covering up a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.