Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team drew sharp and scathing contrasts between former President Donald Trump and President Biden over their respective mishandling of classified materials.
In a fierce rebuttal to Mr. Trump’s lawyers, who accused the special counsel of launching a “selective” and “retaliatory” prosecution and asked for the case to be dismissed, Mr. Smith’s team said Mr. He claimed it was unprecedented.
“There has never been a case in the history of the United States in which a former official engaged in conduct nearly similar to President Trump,” Assistant Special Counsel David Harbach wrote Monday in a voluminous 12-page filing. I mentioned it inside.
“Defendants do not identify anyone else who engaged in deliberate and deceptive criminal conduct substantially similar to this and was not indicted,” it added.
The filing was made in response to a motion by Trump’s team to dismiss the lawsuit filed last week in the wake of special counsel Robert Hur’s bombshell report on Biden’s handling of classified materials released earlier this month. Ta.
President Trump’s allies are focusing on key policies on this issue 388 page Hur report“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden knowingly retained and disclosed classified materials after becoming vice president and while a civilian.”
Mr. Xu ultimately rejected Mr. Biden, citing Mr. Biden’s cooperation with the investigation, precedent for indicting a sitting commander-in-chief, and concerns that jurors would see Mr. Biden as a “well-intentioned old man with a poor memory.” refused the charges. Efforts to prove intentional retention beyond a reasonable doubt may be jeopardized.
In his filing, Harbach emphasized that Smith’s team had much stronger evidence against Trump, pointing to another important contrast between the two cases.
“Mr. Trump, unlike Mr. Biden, allegedly engaged in extensive and repeated efforts to obstruct justice and prevent the return of classified documents,” Harbach said.
“[Trump] ostensibly agreed to comply [the National Archive’s] “But in reality, he took part in further deception and only returned some of the documents he had in his possession,” the prosecutor recalled.
Harbach also pointed to allegations of collusion between Trump, his valet Waltin Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira. Both men are co-defendants on charges of obstructing an investigation.
Prosecutors highlighted an alleged conspiracy by President Trump and the two defendants to move boxes at Mar-a-Lago and then erase surveillance camera footage.
Trump’s team insists the security footage was never deleted.
Ultimately, Harbach argued that Trump’s lawyers had failed to prove that the special counsel’s office was “motivated by a discriminatory purpose” in prosecuting the 45th president.
Mr. Smith and Mr. Hur were appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the Justice Department’s respective investigations into Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden.
Trump faces 40 criminal charges related to the dossier scandal, but has maintained his innocence.
The former president also faces three additional charges in a 51-count criminal complaint. President Trump has completely denied any wrongdoing.
