“Distorted and exaggerated”: Jack Smith torches Trump’s “misleading” bid to delay Mar-a-Lago trial

Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday pushed back on former President Donald Trump’s bid to delay his classified documents trial until after the 2024 election. “The defendants provide no credible justification to postpone a trial that is still seven months away,” Smith wrote in a filing on Monday after Trump’s team last week urged U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to postpone the trial “until at least mid-November 2024, in light of additional, ongoing discovery failures by the Special Counsel’s Office.”

Trump’s legal team is “fully informed” about the charges and the theory of the government’s case from the indictment and the “comprehensive” amounts of classified and unclassified discovery evidence handed over by prosecutors, the filing said. “The Government has provided the defendants extensive, prompt, and well-organized unclassified discovery, yielding an exhaustive roadmap of proof of the detailed allegations in the superseding indictment,” Smith wrote. “The vast majority of classified discovery is also available to the defendants.”

Trump’s claims about a lack of secure facilities to review the documents and security clearances for his team are “inaccurate or incomplete; collectively they are misleading,” noting that Trump attorney Chris Kise has had an interim clearance for months. “Their unfounded claims of Government noncompliance with discovery obligations do not support their request,” Smith wrote. “Their claims about their inability to review classified information are distorted and exaggerated, and, in any event, the Government expects that the CISO will resolve any remaining issues this week. There is no reason to adjourn the trial date. The defendants’ motion should be denied.”