Donald Trump is expected to file motions in Florida Tuesday that would exploit special counsel Jack Smith's inability to get him to disclose his defense, Newsweek reported.
Smith had tried to force Trump to disclose if he was going to use an advice of counsel defense in his classified documents trial — effectively saying he had no intent of illegally retaining national defense information and he had acted in accordance with the advice of his lawyers.
But Judge Aileen Cannon denied Smith's request. On Tuesday, Trump must file any motions to "compel the receipt of discovery" from Smith.
She said one of the motions will seek an order "regarding the scope of the prosecution team," and other will seek "tracking information relating to the handling of allegedly classified documents, damage assessments, and impeachment material relating to the conduct of the investigation."
Writing in her Substack blog, former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance said the motions provide Trump an opportunity "to object to the way Smith has handled discovery and he will likely take full advantage of it — expect lots of outrage over Smith's 'failures'. When the judge rules, and her practice seems to be brief notational 'minute orders' on the docket, we may get some sense of whether the case is still on track for May."
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Trump is seeking to delay all his trials until after the 2024 election. If he wins, he can seek to have the charges in his criminal cases dropped.
Vance went on to say that Trump wants to delay revealing that he plans to use advice of counsel defense because he would also have to disclose his communications with his attorneys.
Trump is accused of improperly retaining classified documents from his time as president. He has pleaded not guilty.
