Former President Donald Trump filed a new motion in the federal 2020 election interference case, hinting that he plans to adopt a new defense.
Specifically, he wants to introduce supposed classified reports of foreign interference that support the merits of his efforts to overturn the election.
"The Indictment in this case adopts classified assessments by the Intelligence Community and others that minimized, and at times ignored, efforts by foreign actors to influence and interfere with the 2020 election," said the filing. "President Trump will offer classified information at trial relating to foreign influence activities that impacted the 2016 and 2020 elections, as well as efforts by his administration to combat those activities. President Trump will also present classified information relating to the biased and politicized nature of the intelligence assessments that he and others rejected during the events in question. Collectively, this evidence will undercut central theories of the prosecution and establish that President Trump acted at all times in good faith and on the belief that he was doing what he had been elected to do."
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"Mostly appears to be IC assessments of foreign interference," said legal analyst Bradley Moss in response to the new filing, in a post on X. "This should be interesting."
It is unclear why Trump would put this evidence forward, as commentators have noted that Trump trying to actually prove his long-discredited claims of voter fraud and election rigging would not be relevant to the crimes of which he is accused. He is more broadly expected to mount an advice of counsel defense, although special counsel Jack Smith has long been laying the groundwork to destroy such a legal strategy.
Ironically, the other federal case against Trump that Smith is pursuing pertains to his alleged illegal theft and retention of classified information in unsecured boxes at his Mar-a-Lago country club in South Florida.
