The Department of Justice (DOJ)’s special counsel in the January 6 case, Jack Smith, has filed a motion rejecting Donald Trump’s request for documents from multiple government agencies.
Smith argued this weekend that Trump’s demands amount to “an unprecedented expansion of the Government’s discovery obligations that would provide special treatment for him and result in delay.”
Smith claims the “prosecution team” is not the entire executive branch, meaning documents belonging to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the DOJ, the Special Counsel’s office, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and other Congressional committees, are “not discoverable”.
“The Government has taken a broad approach to discovery, providing voluminous, comprehensive, and early productions that exceed its obligations,” Smith adds.
The motion accepts prosecutors must reveal information that may be useful to a defendant, yet claims much information Trump has requested “is not in the Government’s possession, [and] in many cases does not appear to exist…”
Reports suggest the information is not discoverable because thousands of texts between Secret Service officials were deleted in January 2021 “after House Democrats notified executive agencies to preserve all Jan 6-related records.” Other withheld information includes Secret Service transcripts, which detail operations on January 6, 2021.
New: Last night, Jack Smith filed a motion objecting to Trump's demands for vast amounts of evidence from various agencies including DHS and J6 committee.
I will post some highlights…
It appears DOJ is part of the scandal of the missing Secret Service texts. As I reported a… pic.twitter.com/3V4o8Wggf1
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) December 10, 2023