In a recent court filing to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the prosecutors working under special counsel Jack Smith have made a remarkable acknowledgment concerning the classified documents case involving former President Donald Trump.
Smith revealed “that after boxes of documents were seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, the order of the documents changed, which the court did not learn about until now,” the Western Journal reported.
The submission focused on defendant Walt Nauta’s plea for an extension to familiarize himself with the contents and arrangement of the confiscated documents. It precisely outlined the location of each document in the boxes and the proper order of the documents within said boxes. Smith’s submission highlighted that the current arrangement of the boxes does not align with the scans taken earlier, a concern raised by legal professionals.
“Since the boxes were seized and stored, appropriate personnel have had access to the boxes for several reasons, including to comply with orders issued by this Court in the civil proceedings noted above, for investigative purposes, and to facilitate the defendants’ review of the boxes,” the Justice Department prosecutors wrote.
“There are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans,” the document said. “The Government acknowledges that this is inconsistent with what Government counsel previously understood and represented to the Court.”
“There are several possible explanations, including the above-described instances in which the boxes were accessed, as well as the size and shape of certain items in the boxes possibly leading to movement of items,” the filing continued. “For example, the boxes contain items smaller than standard paper such as index cards, books, and stationary, which shift easily when the boxes are carried, especially because many of the boxes are not full,” prosecutors wrote.
The specifics play a crucial role in the prosecution’s argument against Trump, who is the initial ex-president or senior elected official facing charges related to classified documents. Trump’s defense strategy is anticipated to include the assertion that the documents were organized chronologically, without consideration for classification markings, as highlighted by legal analysts, according to the Western Journal.
“Legal experts told Just the News the revelation could prove to be a serious problem for prosecutors and a violation of court rules to preserve evidence in the state it was seized,” Just the News noted further. “The organization of the documents in storage boxes at Mar-a-Lago is likely to be an important part of Trump‘s defense. His team is expected to argue the documents were stored in the White House in chronological order on the days that Trump received them, and that staff simply boxed them up and sent them to his home without him accessing them or knowing they contained classified information. Smith’s team tried to downplay the problem and argued it’s not a reason for a delay in Trump’s case.”
Nevertheless, several legal professionals informed the publication that tampering with and deceiving the judge could pose significant challenges for Smith’s team.
“Prosecutors and investigators should never tamper with or alter evidence in their possession, including the order of documents in a box, because one never knows what may become relevant or crucial to a court or jury later in a case,” Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said.
