The MeidasTouch Podcast - Jack Smith SMACKS DOWN Trump’s Latest Motion in Brilliant Fashion

Episode Date: September 30, 2023

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s opposition to Donald Trump’s latest motion seeking to delay the proceedings before Judge Aileen Cannon.  Shopify: Sign up for a one-dollar per month trial at https://shopify.com/meidas Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Burn the Boats: https://pod.link/1485464343 Majority 54: https://pod.link/1309354521 Political Beatdown: https://pod.link/1669634407 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://pod.link/1676844320 MAGA Uncovered: https://pod.link/1690214260 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Ben Micellis from the Midas Touch Network Special Counsel. Jack Smith is responding to Donald Trump's ridiculous motion before Judge Eileen Cannon where Donald Trump's trying to delay, delay, delay, extend all of the deadlines. And Trump is claiming specifically as it relates to the deadlines for SEPA Section 4, the Classified Information Procedures Act. And I'll talk about what Section 4 is in a second. Donald Trump says, well, because Special counsel Jack Smith delayed all of these months and turning over classified documents and other documents, I'm not prepared, judge.

And therefore, please delay all of these dates and deadlines. Donald Trump doesn't specifically request for an extension of the trial date, which is scheduled for May 20th of 2024 before Judge Eileen Cannon. But the implication, if she grants this motion for Donald Trump to delay the various dates and deadlines, it would move the trial date back. That's what Donald Trump's trying to accomplish here. And you got Jack Smith just schooling Judge Eileen Cannon and schooling Donald Trump's motion and just schooling everyone

saying like, what are you talking about? Jack Smith points out here, let's be very clear about what happened. By the way, if you saw my predictions of what I thought Jack Smith was going to say in this motion when Donald Trump filed his motion, what Jack Smith was going to say in the operation, I think I was spot on because Jack Smith's like, look, when this indictment was unsealed back in June, it involves Donald Trump's willful retention of national defense information. It involves classified documents that Donald Trump stole and obstructed justice and made false statements about by keeping these documents in Mar-a-Lago. And because the case involves classified documents, it triggers SEPA, the Classified Information Protection Act, Procedures Act. And what you got to do for a SEPA

case is you got to have a Section 3 SEPA protective order. And Jack Smith was ready to have this protective order, which governs how classified documents are handled in the case. Jack Smith wanted it to be signed by Judge Eileen Cannon back in June. Jack Smith had it ready. And the protective order governs things like the documents because they're classified records. They're very sensitive records. They got to be viewed in SCIFs, sensitive compartmented information facilities. They have to be handled if it's being brought to the court and how the documents are kind of distributed, all under seal, all done very confidential. But there's like an independent

monitor who's appointed to SEPA cases and it's called a CISO, a classified information security officer who guides the handling of these documents. And the SEPA protective order also limits the access that the party has, where the party can access it in SCIFs, that the party can't bring in recording devices. Again, these are very sensitive documents. So it took Judge Cannon until September 13th to enter the SEPA protective order. So on that very day, as Jack Smith points out,

we turned over all of the classified information that we were willing to turn over. By the way, before that, when it comes to the non-classified documents, Jack Smith points out, we've turned over 1.2 million pages of records already. We've produced all of the records to Donald Trump. So we're talking about a small subset right now of classified documents. We've placed in the SCIF through the CISO, the Classified Information Security Officer, for Donald Trump to access and Trump's lawyers to access. All the classified documents were comfortable with him accessing. However, there's a subset of those classified records, and there's not that much. It's like 32 counts or so

of classified information documents. So it's not a huge amount of documents, but there are some documents that under SEPA Section 4, the government does not want to put those in the SCIFs. Instead, what they want to do is remove those documents from the production, but in its place, provide a summary to the court that substitutes for the documents because of how highly sensitive they are. And they don't want a party, in this case, Donald Trump, to have access to them. So substituting a summary or description of the documents in its place, and that process is you submit ex parte to the judge, the federal judge, what those documents are. And the judge can rule about SEPA section four procedures about, do you have to produce the classified document or can the summary be in its place and things like that. So Jack Smith's like,

what are we even talking about here? Okay. We have an October 10th SEPA section four deadline. I don't understand why Donald Trump is trying to delay this other than he wants to upend the entire schedule because we turned over all the other documents, including confidential documents in the first tranche subject to the regular protective order, 1.2 million records. The government's turned over all of the classified records on the date you finally, Judge Eileen Cannon, entered the protective order, which was the September 13th date. The only documents that haven't been turned over is this small subset of documents that under Section 4 we want the court to evaluate because we don't

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trial period at shopify.com slash Midas, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash Midas to take your business to the next level today. Shopify.com slash Midas. So let's go through our section for deadlines. Trump, submit your brief. We'll submit our brief. And then we'll decide what that section four corpus of documents looks like. And we'll proceed down the path. And there's other dates and other deadlines. But Trump, you have all the information that you need to deal with the section four issues if you want to oppose that. Do you know what your theory of the case, even? One of the most brilliant things here in this motion is Jack Smith's schooling Trump like,

let me explain to you what your case is. We're alleging that you engage in the willful retention of national defense information. So let's break down what the elements are of willful retention that you willfully retain documents that don't belong to you and you maintained them and didn't return them and you never should have had them in the first place. So what's your defense to that? You can't formulate a defense without what? How do the corpus of documents that the government's validly not required to turn over under SEPA section four, how does that have anything to do with your being unable to be prepared? And again, don't accuse Jack Smith and Jack Smith's team of not being prepared.

They've turned over everything promptly. On the date Cannon entered the protective order, they turned it over. And so here, just to remind the court and Donald Trump what Section 4 is, it says the following. As the government, as Jack Smith explained to the defense during a meet and confer session on this motion, a ruling on the government's Section 4 motion is a prerequisite to producing certain discovery in this case. As I was saying, determining the Section 4 issues, will the government have to turn them over? Can they do a summary in its place? Why does Section 4 cause a delay? It doesn't make any sense, Jackson would say. Pursuant to SEPA Section 4, the government may delete specified items of classified information

from documents, substitute a summary of the information for such classified documents, or substitute a statement admitting relevant facts that the classified information would tend to prove. SEPA Section 4, therefore, not only permits the withholding of items from discovery, but it is also a mechanism to obtain the court's approval to produce classified documents with redactions or to provide the substitutions or summaries to the defense. As indicated to Trump's lawyers, the government intends to use SEPA Section 4 in that matter. And unless and until the court authorizes the government to produce certain classified documents to the defense with its proposed redactions or in substituted form, the government cannot produce the documents at all.

So Jack Smith's basically saying saying like, what is it that we're talking about? Why is section four being used as an excuse by Trump for delay? Here's also what Jack Smith says. Look, in light of the delays in the entry of the SEPA section three protective order, cough, cough, Judge Eileen Cannon, and defense counsel read-ins to certain compartments, cough, cough, Donald Trump's lawyers took forever to get their security clearance documents in. It says the court invited the defendants to file a motion to extend deadlines related to SEPA section four. But instead of doing this, defendant Trump, joined by the co-defendants, by the way,

who aren't even charged with willful retention of national defense information, filed a motion that threatens to upend the entire schedule established by the court. And that amounts to a motion to continue the May 20th, 2024 trial date, because they're saying that all of these SEPA section four issues should be resolved in January and not in October, on October 10th, where they should be resolved. And then in terms of the argument that I told you where the defense, where Trump says he's unable to come up with a defense, Jack Smith explains the law, how simple it is. Consideration of the charges that defendants face illustrates the point. Trump is the only defendant. Remember the co-defendfendants Walti Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, his workers. Trump is the only defendant charged with mishandling of classified information.

He is charged under 18 USC section 793E for the willful retention of national defense information. To convict a defendant under the statute, the government must prove three elements, unauthorized possession of a document that related to the national defense and by a defendant who willfully retained the documents and failed to deliver it to the employee or officer to receive it. National defense is a generic concept of broad connotations referring to military and Navy establishments and relating activities of national preparedness. Moreover, to qualify as national defense information, the information also must be clearly held by the government. That is, national defense information is limited

to information that the government has endeavored to keep from the public. Potential defenses to the charge might include, for example, that Trump was authorized to possess the charge documents, that the subject matter of the documents did not concern the national defense, that the documents were not closely held, or that he did not willfully retain the documents. So Jack Smith's saying, that's what you just need to spell out for us to keep the deadlines. Let me explain to you what your four defenses are to the crimes you're being charged with. And Jack Smith says, this is nonsense. We've turned over all of the records. Keep the date, judge. What are you doing? What are you doing? So that's the motion that opposition Jack Smith filed to Trump's attempt to delay. a strong motion by Jack Smith.

It's really a pleasure watching such, reading such well-written motions. And, you know, I like to geek out with these motions. So hopefully you enjoy that as well. Go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch to support the growth of the Midas Touch Network. And wherever you get audio podcasts, subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast and hit subscribe on our YouTube channel and have a great day.