America First Legal (AFL) recently filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense (DOD), alleging that the department illegally hid records concerning the Presidential Information Technology Committee (PITC), established by the Obama administration “to improve the information resources and information systems provided to the President.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith previously indicted former President Donald Trump on charges stemming from his alleged hoarding of classified documents. In its lawsuit, AFL argued that the documents could “exonerate” the former president in the classified documents case.
/1📑NEW LAWSUIT — Biden’s Department of Defense is illegally concealing records that could exonerate President Trump in DOJ’s illegal prosecution over presidential records.
So today, we sued the Department of Defense to obtain these records.
Read on: pic.twitter.com/cpVufGqHo2
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) April 4, 2024
The legal group said that the PITC suggests that the president has full control over the information they receive. As such, the committee’s existence could prove that Trump rightfully possessed the classified documents upon leaving the White House in 2021.
AFL pointed out that if the information held by PITC helped Smith construct his case against the former president, facts surrounding a president’s retention of classified documents should have been provided to the special counsel and his legal team.
“America First Legal’s suit today raises significant legal questions the Biden administration must confront,” AFL Vice President Dan Epstein said in a statement. “First, the President’s Information Technology Committee presumes that all information received by the President is within his control.”
“That principle complicates the indictment by the Special Counsel’s Office, particularly on the question of what President Trump was authorized to access and retain,” Epstein added.
“If the Court finds that records subject to PITC are agency records, not presidential records, and were separately preserved by the Department of Defense, then it raises serious questions about the National Archives’ decision to refer Trump to the Department of Justice as that referral would be based on the false claim that President Trump removed presidential records,” he continued.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 counts in Smith’s indictment against him. If the former president is convicted, he could face years behind bars, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Trump has rebuked Smith over the indictment, calling the special counsel a “thug” and “deranged.” Despite this legal challenge, the former president has remained in the 2024 presidential race, with polls showing him defeating President Joe Biden.
