Trump's Lawyers Gift Jack Smith 'Roadmap' to Defense: Former Prosecutor

Donald Trump's lawyers handed special counsel Jack Smith a "roadmap" to their Mar-a-Lago defense strategy amid the former president's classified documents case, according to former prosecutor Charles Coleman Jr. on Sunday.

Trump has been accused of improperly removing dozens of classified documents from the White House before leaving office in 2021. Last August, the FBI, at the direction of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, seized the documents from Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida, estate, turning the Department of Justice's (DOJ) investigation public. However, many details remain limited and Trump has maintained his innocence in the case.

While speaking on MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show on Sunday, Coleman Jr. discussed a letter that Trump's attorneys sent to House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, asking for the GOP majority House to take over the federal investigation. Coleman Jr. noted the letter included how Trump's attorneys view his innocence, which would give Smith's office a glimpse of how they will present their case.

"I think it is very interesting though from a lawyer's perspective to see them lay out their entire defense basically before this has even happened," Coleman Jr. said. "It is right there. So, if you are looking at that, and you are thinking about how you are going to prosecute this case, you have just given Jack Smith a roadmap into what you do need to cover during the grand jury presentation to make sure, not only that you are able to get an indictment, but then how you are going to structure your prosecution."

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email.

Meanwhile, the former president has been outspoken on social media denouncing Smith, saying in a video posted to Truth Social on Friday, "[I] did absolutely nothing wrong. But was purposely given by the DOJ and Biden a Trump hating prosecutor, Jack Smith." He added that Smith and his wife are "Trump haters."

"He is a harasser and an abuser of our people in order to obstruct and interfere with the 2020 presidential election," the former president said.

On Sunday, Coleman Jr. concluded his comments about Smith, adding, "It will be interesting to see moving forward, if he [Trump] is indicted for this, which I do believe he will be, how that impacts Jack Smith's presentation of the case and then ultimately their theory of how they move forward."