FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors and defense lawyers in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump are due in court Wednesday for the first time since the judge indefinitely postponed the trial earlier this month.
The motion is one of several that Trump’s lawyers have filed to dismiss the case, some of which have already been denied.
Also scheduled for Wednesday are arguments by a Trump co-defendant, his valet Walt Nauta, to dismiss charges.
The defense lawyers asserted in the motion that the August 2022 search was unconstitutional and “illegal” and the FBI affidavit filed in justification of it was tainted by misrepresentations.
“The warrant was supported by a detailed affidavit that established probable cause and did not omit any material information.
Trump identifies no plausible basis to suppress the fruits of that search,” prosecutors wrote.
The defense motion was filed in February but was made public on Tuesday, along with hundreds of pages of documents from the investigation that were filed to the case docket in Florida.
Trump, the GOP presumptive presidential nominee for 2024, has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
Ft Pierce, Fla. Earlier this month, the judge postponed the trial indefinitely. On Wednesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case involving classified documents against former President Donald Trump are scheduled to appear in court.
One of the four criminal cases against Trump, the trial was scheduled for May 20 but U.S. s. In her decision to postpone the trial, District Judge Aileen Cannon listed a number of unresolved matters.
Hearings on Trump’s motion to drop the indictment—which he claims is a “personal and political attack against President Trump” with a “litany of uncharged grievances both for public and media consumption”—were set to take place on Wednesday. “.
The request will face opposition from the prosecution team led by special counsel Jack Smith, who filed the lawsuit. There is no expectation that Trump, a Republican, will attend the hearing.
Trump’s attorneys have filed multiple motions to dismiss the case; some of them have already been turned down. This one is one of them.
The co-defendant of Trump, his valet Walt Nauta, is scheduled to make arguments to discount charges on Wednesday as well.
The defense attorneys are attempting to exclude evidence from boxes of documents that FBI agents found during a search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach almost two years ago, according to a newly unsealed motion that was made public one day before the arguments.
In their motion, the defense attorneys claimed that the August 2022 search was “illegal” and unconstitutional, and that the FBI affidavit supporting it contained false statements.
Each of those allegations was refuted by Smith’s team, which also defended the investigation strategy as “graduated” and “measured.”. The search warrant, according to the statement, was obtained after detectives gathered surveillance footage purportedly demonstrating a deliberate attempt to hide the boxes of classified documents within the premises.
“A thorough affidavit that established probable cause and contained all relevant information was used to support the warrant. Nor did the warrant offer the FBI agents conducting the search any shortage of direction. Prosecutors wrote that Trump “identifies no plausible basis to suppress the fruits of that search.”.
Along with hundreds of pages of investigation-related documents that were added to the Florida case docket, the defense motion—which was filed in February—was made public on Tuesday.
These include a previously sealed ruling from the chief judge of the federal court in Washington, D.C., from last year. According to it, months after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s attorneys turned over four more documents that had classified markings and were discovered in his bedroom.
That March 2023 U.S. opinion. s. Dismissing defense claims that their cooperation was barred by attorney-client privilege, District Judge Beryl Howell ordered a former lead attorney for Trump in the case to comply with a grand jury subpoena and provide materials to investigators. Howell concluded that prosecutors had established a “prima facie” case that Trump had committed a crime.
The presumed GOP presidential candidate for 2024, Donald Trump, has entered a not guilty plea and refuted any wrongdoing.
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