Trump lawyers seek evidence to relitigate election fraud claims in Jan. 6 case

Former President Trump’s legal team made a sweeping request for evidence late Monday, seeking to relitigate the 2020 election as part of the legal battle over whether Trump sought to block the transfer of power after losing the presidential contest. 

The requests from Trump point to the documented efforts by foreign powers to interfere with the 2016 election, asking for a suite of materials prepared by U.S. intelligence agencies regarding the 2020 election while repeating baseless claims there could be widespread fraud that would have shifted the outcome of the race. 

Trump’s lawyers say he is entitled to all information about “foreign influence efforts targeting the 2020 election” and accuses the House committee that investigated the deadly rampage at the Capitol of “ignoring contrary evidence regarding the role of foreign influence in the 2020 election.”

Whether Trump believed those allegations is a matter for trial, his attorneys say, echoing prosecutors who have pledged to show Trump ignored the advice of trusted counselors who informed him he had lost the election and had no legal pathway to remain in office. 

The discovery request follows other related motions by Trump, including those claiming he is the subject of a “vindictive” prosecution.

“The indictment in this case reflects little more than partisan advocacy designed to sabotage President Trump’s leading campaign for the 2024 President Election,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.

“Consistent with that improper and unlawful goal, the Special Counsel’s Office has chosen to rely on the views of witnesses who aligned with the Biden Administration’s political viewpoints, and to treat those biased opinions as objective and irrefutable truths regarding the integrity of the 2020 election and the events of January 6, 2021.”

The scope of the request includes information on “informants and other undercover operatives” as well as unclassified assessments prepared by the intelligence community about the security of the 2020 election, even noting that Trump fired his cybersecurity director for concluding that there had been no issues in accurately counting the votes of the contest.

“Less than two weeks after the 2020 election, CISA joined a public statement regarding election security. The 2020 Election CISA Statement claimed, falsely, that ‘there was no evidence any voting system had been comprised’ and ‘declared the 2020 election ‘the most secure in American history.’”

“On November 17, 2020, President Trump fired CISA’s Director. In a public statement, President Trump explained that he terminated the Director because the CISA Election Statement was ‘highly inaccurate.’”

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Still, Trump’s team appears to quash any backing of the “Fedsurrection” conspiracy theory that purports the government may have been behind arranging the attack on the Capitol.

After writing that “the January 6 protests at the Capitol are irrelevant to this case,” Trump’s team asks for “all information regarding undercover agents and individuals acting at the direction of official authorities at the Capitol on January 6.”

“Here President Trump is not seeking to establish that he was induced to engage in the charged conduct,” the filing states.

“Rather, in this case, information regarding individuals who were present in an official capacity is favorable to President Trump because it suggests that there were adequate controls in place and that the violence at issue resulted from a failure of those controls and/or failed sting operations rather than any directions from President Trump.”

While the government is required to turn over evidence it has already collected that may help with Trump’s defense, it only must turn over information available to prosecutors and may not have access to much of the information Trump’s team seeks.

The filing from Trump’s team came shortly after Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the matter, denied his efforts to subpoena lawmakers for information he claimed was “missing” from the Jan. 6 committee archives, determining it amounted to a “fishing expedition.” 

Trump is charged on four counts in connection with the case, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, as well as two counts related to obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights for taking actions that would deny the counting of lawfully cast votes.