Although they had earlier claimed to have done so, the special counsel Jack Smith’s team acknowledged in a court filing on Monday that they had not given all of the material to the legal counsel for former president Donald Trump.
Asserting that Trump improperly held onto sensitive papers after leaving office and misled the government about turning over all documents, Smith has filed 40 counts against him.
Newsweek said that on July 27, Smith’s team submitted a “superseding indictment” accusing Trump of ordering his security personnel to remove security tapes from his Mar-a-Lago resort just a few months before the FBI raided the Florida home.
Other people named in the indictment include Waltine “Walt” Nauta, a Trump assistant, and Carlos De Oliveira, the manager of Mar-a-Lago.
Prosecutors claim De Oliveira was the one who informed a Mar-a-Lago employee that “the boss” desired the deletion of a security server.
JUST IN: Donald Trump accuses special counsel Jack Smith of “prosecutorial misconduct” as he flat out denies the accusation that he told his head of maintenance to delete security footage.
According to the indictment, head of maintenance Carlos De Oliveira told an employee that… pic.twitter.com/ZfH7I1mQs3
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 30, 2023
Smith now seems to be the one hiding surveillance footage.
According to Newsweek, Smith’s team acknowledged in a court document dated July 31 that they had violated the law by failing to transmit a video shot at Mar-a-Lago to a website where Trump’s legal team could access it.
“On July 27, as part of the preparation for the superseding indictment coming later that day and the discovery production for Defendant De Oliveira, the Government learned that this footage had not been processed and uploaded to the platform established for the defense to view the subpoenaed footage,” read the filing.
It continued: “The Government’s representation at the July 18 hearing that all surveillance footage the Government had obtained pre-indictment had been produced was therefore incorrect.”
According to the Brady rule, which is a rule of law, the prosecution must give the defense any evidence that will exonerate them from any charges that will be made against them in court.
Prosecutors MUST NOT WITHHOLD EVIDENCE that can be exculpatory. The rule was crystallized in Brady v. Maryland, a 1963 Supreme Court decision.
“Suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused who has requested it VIOLATES DUE PROCESS where the evidence is…
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) March 12, 2023
Smith’s team acknowledged this in last week’s court filing, writing: “The Government is aware of its continuing duty to disclose such newly discovered additional information.”
Trump’s campaign described Smith’s team’s initial announcement of the superseding indictment as a “desperate and flailing attempt” to keep the former President from seeking reelection in 2024, according to the Epoch Times.
“Deranged Jack Smith knows that they have no case and is casting about for any way to salvage their illegal witch hunt and to get someone other than Donald Trump to run against Crooked Joe Biden,” his campaign said at the time, according to the Times.
Trump on Truth Social:
“IF YOU COME AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” pic.twitter.com/iByibOGhbX
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 4, 2023
Most surveys place Trump far ahead of rivals like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence as the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
Thomas Cooper