Special counsel Jack Smith’s statement that several work phones used by Secret Service agents “did not contain any recoverable information” has raised new questions about the agency’s claim that text messages sent around the time of the January 6, 2021, Capitol uprising were irretrievably deleted.
In an August federal indictment, Trump was charged with four counts related to his alleged attempt to change the outcome of the 2020 election. The federal election interference case is one of four in which the former president is now involved; it is one of two launched by Smith, and one of two including charges of election tampering. Trump has pled not guilty in all of the allegations against him and has denied any wrongdoing.
In response to former President Donald Trump’s lawyers’ request for an expansion of the evidence available to them in the case involving allegations of election interference, the special counsel wrote that prosecutors had obtained the devices and later returned them to Trump’s team without objection. Smith argued that granting the former president’s request would create an unwarranted delay in the commencement of the trial, which is set to begin in March 2024.
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