Special Counsel Jack Smith signaled that prosecutors know former President Donald Trump's motive for failing to relinquish a cache of classified documents before leaving the White House for Mar-a-Lago, a Washington Post columnist wrote Tuesday.
"That the classified materials at issue in this case were taken from the White House and retained at Mar-a-Lago is not in dispute; what is in dispute is how that occurred, why it occurred, what Trump knew, and what Trump intended in retaining them — all issues that the Government will prove at trial primarily with unclassified evidence," reads a government motion filed in court on Monday.
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It appears that the government is not only prepared to prove the how and the why that went into the paper hoarding, but also “what Trump knew, and intended" in retaining the precious documents once he left office after losing the 2020 presidential election to then President-Elect Joe Biden.
Washington Post writer Aaron Blake took quick notice of Smith's effort in the filed motion to publicly expose Trump's intent come trial.
"Indeed, establishing a motive would seem to drive home the intention of Trump’s actions and combat any arguments that this was all a misunderstanding — or that Trump somehow didn’t know what he had (which the government has taken care to undermine)," Blake wrote.
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"In that case, Smith need not necessarily prove that Trump knew that his claims of massive voter fraud were false to demonstrate that Trump broke the law in trying to overturn the election. But it, too, would be helpful, and Smith’s office has made it abundantly clear that it intends to prove it, devoting 20 out of 45 pages from the indictment to that point."
