Trump Mar-a-Lago evidence request highlights defense strategy targeting Biden admin, Intel community

Former President Trump gave a preview of his defense strategy in his Mar-a-Lago documents case Tuesday, making a sweeping request for discovery that accuses the Biden administration of “collusion” in the case and seeks to show “bias” from the intelligence community.

Trump is accused of violating the Espionage Act by refusing to return more than 300 records with classified markings, even shuffling them around his Florida estate to conceal them from both his attorney and prosecutors.

But the Tuesday night filing shows the extent Trump’s lawyers will seek to put the Biden administration on trial, echoing the former president’s campaign rhetoric in asking for communications and documents they say show he was unfairly targeted.

The 68-page filing says they have secured records that suggest “evidence of collusion between the [special counsel’s] Office and the White House, [Department of Justice], FBI, and NARA,” also known as the National Archives.

Trump’s attorneys say records they gathered through a public records request “strongly supports the existence of additional evidence of bias and political animus that is central to the defense of this case and must be produced promptly.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith in part to shield the case from the accusations of political bias Trump is now making. Despite Trump’s claims, there is no evidence of improper coordination, and the White House has said it had no advanced awareness of the June 2022 search of Trump’s home.

The request also asks for any communications with prosecutors in Georgia — connecting Trump’s Mar-a-Lago case with his prosecutions for his efforts to stay in power by requesting documents related to the state-level Jan. 6 case.

The filing also seeks “evidence relating to analytic bias harbored by the Intelligence Community.”

Trump’s team asserts that Smith’s team must provide any discovery that aids “trial defenses that [Trump] is seeking to develop.”

Prosecutors will have a chance to respond to the filing and are likely to tell U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that much of the material defense lawyers are seeking is not relevant to the case.

Trump’s team also complains about efforts to strip his security clearance and pushed back on arguments from prosecutors that national security secrets were at risk by being kept at a hotel and club with a revolving door of guests.

The indictment against Trump charted the course of the moving documents, from a storage room to a ballroom stage and even to a bathroom.

“President Trump will dispute at trial the contentions by the Special Counsel’s Office that Mar-a-Lago was not secure and that there was a risk that materials stored at those premises could be compromised,” Trump’s team wrote.

“President Trump is entitled to present evidence regarding steps the Secret Service took to secure the residences, such as during and after his successful run in the 2016 election.”

The Associated Press contributed.