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Donald Trump's lawyers want the government to reveal all of the undercover agents who were involved in plotting the January 6 riot at the Capitol building, their latest court filing shows.
They are also seeking a list of all the undercover agents who were within a five-mile radius of the Capitol on the day of the attack.
Their request is part of a massive new disclosure application in Trump's election fraud case that includes all the classified documents relating to alleged Russian, Iranian, Chinese, Cuban and Venezuelan meddling in the 2020 election.
The request could delay Trump's trial by months, as it has in Trump's classified documents trial in Florida, where attorneys have to view the disclosed documents in special secure rooms and use ultra-secure laptops.
Prosecutors in both cases have complained previously that Trump is deliberately delaying his trials until after the 2024 election.
Trump was indicted on four counts in Washington, D.C., for allegedly working to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
Newsweek sought email comment on Thursday from Trump's attorney.
The former president's lawyers previously told the court that they need the documents to show that Trump was trying to save the 2020 election from foreign meddling.
In a disclosure request filed to Judge Tanya Chutkan on Wednesday, Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and John Lauro said they want "all documents regarding informants, cooperators, undercover agents, representatives, or anyone acting in a similar capacity" who were "at or within five miles of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021."
The Trump lawyers hope to show that undercover agents encouraged the January 6 attack and want government disclosure of any undercover agents or informers "involved in the assistance, planning, or encouragement of any activities related to the protest, breach, or trespassing of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021."
They also want the government to disclose any payments or "things of value" given to informers or undercover agents who were at the Capitol building.
Trump's lawyers are seeking "all documents—including drafts and communications regarding revisions, and source materials" of a Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security joint report on foreign meddling in the 2020 election.
This includes all documents relating to the "broad Russian and Iranian campaigns" to undermine public confidence in the election that were referenced in the joint report, as well as "incidents when Russian, Chinese, and Iranian government-affiliated actors" materially impacted computer networks used in the 2020 federal election as well as documents relating to claims that Venezuela, Cuba, and China "owned, directed, or controlled election infrastructure used in the 2020 federal elections."
Trump's former lawyer Sidney Powell told a post-election press conference that Hugo Chavez's Marxist government in Venezuela had developed the software used in the 2020 presidential election voting machines.
The request for 57 sections of government documents, most of them classified, would likely delay Trump's Washington trial by months.
In Trump's other federal case, in which he is accused of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon has said that he will have to set a new pre-trial schedule because of the large number of documents being sought by the Trump defense team.
"I'm just having a hard time seeing how realistically this work can be accomplished in this compressed period of time, given the realities that we're facing," Cannon told lawyers at a hearing on November 1.
Justice Department national security prosecutor Jay Bratt objected and said Trump's continuing requests for postponements are part of an overarching strategy of delay in many of his legal proceedings. "It's not surprising," Bratt told Cannon.
In that Florida case, Trump's lawyers want to review all the classified documents Trump is alleged to have stored in Mar-a-Lago. That process required the government to set up two secure rooms in downtown Miami so that lawyers for both sides could review the documents. The most sensitive documents are not kept in the secure room and have to be couriered to the lawyers by "members of the intelligence community," according to Justice Department court submissions.
The government also had to supply both sets of lawyers with special ultra-secure laptops to avoid hacking. Trump's lawyers complained in October that they didn't receive their laptops. In a rebuttal document, the Department of Justice's chief prosecutor, Jack Smith, said that the Trump lawyers had been using the laptops for months.
Under the federal Classified Information Procedures Act, all of the security protocols in the Florida case will have to be replicated in the Washington case if Trump is granted his disclosure request.
About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more