According to Just the News, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team was compelled to acknowledge in court that they failed to comply with the legal obligation of handing over evidence to the Trump legal team. This pertains to evidence related to Jack Smith’s initial indictment of Trump concerning Mr. Trump’s possession of documents, not the more recent second indictment related to January 6th. In his indictment, Jack Smith accused Donald Trump and Carlos De Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago property manager, of conspiring to delete surveillance footage.
According to their court filing, Smith’s team stated that the CCTV footage from Mar-a-Lago had not been processed and uploaded to the defense’s designated platform for viewing. They also admitted that the Government’s claim during the July 18 hearing, which stated that all pre-indictment surveillance footage had been provided to the defense, was incorrect. This situation is in violation of the Brady rule, which mandates that the government must disclose all exculpatory evidence and information to the defense.
Currently, they assert that they have provided all the material related to the CCTV footage to the defense. However, it appears that Smith’s team tried to hinder the defense’s ability to examine the footage by imposing a time limit on it.
Journalist Julie Kelly commented on this matter, saying, “This is my favorite argument from Smith’s team so far. Indictment discusses how Team Trump moved boxes and classified docs for more than a year but now DOJ advises defense team to only look at a few days from total archive. Luckily Judge Cannon said–um I don’t think so.”
A little whoopsie from Jack Smith's office.
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) August 1, 2023
DOJ admits it did not produce all the Mar-a-Lago camera footage to defense counsel in first batches of discovery==despite making that claim in court last month.
This security video story will get no blaring headlines: pic.twitter.com/rZc9oplXAB
In a court filing dated July 18th, Smith’s team also conceded that they had obtained all the CCTV footage up to the date of the indictment. On this matter, Julie Kelly remarked, “adding to this, Jack Smith misrepresented the facts to Judge Cannon last month,” alluding to Smith’s shift towards charging Trump for conspiracy to delete the footage.
Though legal analysts like Joel Pollack from Breitbart News find this entire situation “ironic,” there is an additional layer of irony that Pollack does not address in his article. Jack Smith is essentially charging Trump for not submitting documents to appropriate government authorities, yet Smith’s own department has been illicitly leaking documents, materials, and information to media outlets. As a result, Jack Smith has failed to safeguard the confidentiality of his own legal investigation and the associated materials.
Adding to this Jack Smith's misrepresentation to Judge Cannon last month… https://t.co/ZVLjl0Wn6r pic.twitter.com/npaY8ns2YV
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) August 1, 2023
Former Governor Bob McDonnell (R-VA), who was once a victim of Smith’s prosecutorial misconduct, described the prosecutor as “overzealous” and criticized his approach, stating that Smith does not genuinely assess whether the facts align with the law. According to McDonnell, Smith prioritizes winning over ensuring justice is served, and this may be influencing some of the decisions made in current cases.
In the case of McDonnell, the Supreme Court unanimously criticized Smith’s prosecution of the former governor.
