(CN) —Donald Trump and his co-defendants claim the indictment filed against them in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case is overly vague and contains needless political attacks.
The defendants asked District Judge Aileen M. Cannon in the new motion to dismiss the indictment for containing a “miasma of largely political complaints” and “uncharged grievances” that will prejudice a jury.
The filing late Wednesday was the latest attempt by Trump and his employees, Carlos De Oliveira and Walt Nauta, to see their case dismissed before a May trial date. Defense attorneys are expected to argue for the trial's delay at a hearing on Friday.
The former president is accused of hoarding boxes of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, after he left the White House. Prosecutors claim De Oliveira and Nauta helped hide the boxes from federal authorities and tried to pressure a Mar-a-Lago employee to delete incriminating security footage.
The accusations are detailed in a 60-page superseding indictment filed in July. The defendants claim the pleading is not a concise recitation of the facts, but instead a “picture book presentation” that attacks the former president on political grounds.
Defendants enjoy constitutional protections against “shotgun” or “kitchen sink” indictments that fail to clearly explain what crimes are brought against them. The complaint must detail the elements of the offense and, in the case of multiple defendants, who is accused of committing each crime.
Trump and his employees criticize the special counsel’s office for including in the indictment photos of the boxes that contained classified materials, which they argued were essentially trial exhibits. They claim the indictment also contains needless facts unrelated to the charges, including statements Trump made at a 2017 news conference decrying the leak of classified documents.
The facts that underlie the charges are too weak or ambiguous to sustain the charges, they say.
The men are accused of participating in a conspiracy to hide classified materials, but there is no evidence De Oliveira or Nauta were aware the boxes contained such documents, they argue. Prosecutors accuse them of pressuring an employee to delete security footage, but the employee had been told two days before to preserve all recordings at the resort.
If Cannon, a Trump appointee, will not dismiss the indictment, the defendants asked her to strike all “irrelevant, inflammatory and prejudicial language” from the document.
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