Jack Smith Shuts Off Donald Trump From Getting His Hands on Evidence

Donald Trump's legal team has continued its attempts to gain access to what they see as important information in case against the former president in Washington, DC.

Trump says important information relating to the case has not been turned over to him and his lawyers, but the government has argued the information being requested is "not relevant to the case."

In November, Judge Tanya Chutkan denied Trump's request to subpoena records from the House January 6 Committee. The Trump team agued the investigation had "significant overlap" with that of the case brought by Smith.

Against the motion, Smith argued: "The defendant's view of discovery is untethered to any statute, rule, or case, and lacks both specificity and justification."

He said: "The information he seeks is not in the Government's possession, in many cases does not appear to exist, and in any event is not discoverable pursuant to Brady, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 16, or any other authority. The defendant's motions should be denied."

Chutkan said the request from Trump was not nearly specific enough in declaring what the legal team sought and amounted to a "fishing expedition."

"The broad scope of the records that Defendant seeks, and his vague description of their potential relevance, resemble less 'a good faith effort to obtain identified evidence'" than they do a "fishing expedition," she wrote.

Analyzing the case on her Substack page, Joy Vance, the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, agreed.

"Even where entities are within the prosecution team, defendants are only entitled to information that is "material" to their defense," Vance, appointed by former President Barack Obama, explained. "Requests that are merely speculative are not enough to merit an expanded search by the government for more evidence."

She said the tactic from the lawyers is known as "graymail." Essentially, this is the idea that lawyers request the government handover information in the hope charges will be dismissed by prosecutors in the interest of withholding national secrets.

Newsweek has approached a spokesperson for Trump via email for comment.

The DC case against Trump regards his alleged involvement in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and his role in the attack on the Capitol building on January 6.

In the American capital, Trump is charged with: conspiracy to defraud the United States; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. He denies all of the charges against him.