CNN
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Former President Donald Trump argued in court filings Wednesday that he should not be required to go to a so-called SCIF – a sensitive compartmented information facility – to discuss with his lawyers the classified evidence in the documents case that special counsel Jack Smith brought against him in Florida.
Instead, he is proposing that he be allowed to discuss those materials at a facility “at or near his residence” that was previously approved for discussing classified information when he was president.
Trump’s lawyers did not specify which residence, arguing that doing so in a public filing would pose security concerns, and stressed that they aren’t seeking to physically take the documents to the facility.
Prosecutors had raised concerns about a proposal from Trump’s lawyers that they be allowed to discuss classified material with the former president at his “office at Mar-a-Lago, and possibly Bedminster.” Allowing such discussions at a private residence would amount to “exceptional treatment.”
Prosecutors also noted that Mar-a-Lago – Trump’s Florida resort – is where Trump’s alleged crimes took place.
With his response Wednesday, the Trump team asserted that his residence is “a highly protected location guarded by federal agents that previously housed a secure facility approved for not only the discussion, but also the retention, of classified information.”
Trump’s lawyers argued that requiring the former president to travel to the SCIF at the Miami federal courthouse – where the classified evidence would be housed – just to discuss the materials would create “immense practical and logistical hurdles.”
“Both the required security protocol surrounding President Trump’s travel and the challenges surrounding the media’s and public’s intense focus on this prosecution pose an enormous obstacle to our ability to provide counsel to President Trump regarding classified matters, which are, no doubt, essential to this case,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “Our proposed alternative is both reasonable and appropriate, given the extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances of this case.”
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Trump attorney Todd Blanche, in a separate filing, detailed the logistical challenges of traveling to the Miami courthouse for discussions with his attorneys about classified evidence. It claimed that doing so would “would require an overnight stay in the local area by his protective detail, including members of the Secret Service, as well as an overnight stay by President Trump,” while also arguing that the courthouse operations would be severely disrupted with the visits, especially if the public learned in advance that Trump was visiting the facility.
The protocols for handling classified discovery in the documents case has been a flashpoint between Trump’s and Smith’s teams, and prosecutors and the former president are also in disagreement over how tight the rules should be for disclosing evidence he receives in Smith’s election subversion prosecution.
The latest filing says Trump and prosecutors had overcome some of their disagreements in the dispute over the classified documents protective order, but that this sticking point remained.
“Limiting any discussions with counsel to the government offered SCIFs is an inappropriate, unnecessary, and unworkable restriction, given the unique circumstances of President Trump’s access to security — namely that he resides and works in a secure location that is protected at all times by members of the United States Secret Service, and that the proposed alternate location previously housed an area approved for not only the discussion, but also the storage and review, of classified information,” the filing said.
