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…
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