Jack Smith team told court, they
- contaminated evidence that could prove Trump innocent
- preferred not to tell court, until now ie. until pushed by recent Defense motions
The organization of the documents in storage boxes at Mar-a-Lago is likely to be an important part of Trump‘s defense. His team is expected to argue the documents were stored in the White House in chronological order on the days that Trump received them, and that staff simply boxed them up and sent them to his home without him accessing them or knowing they contained classified information...
But...[Smith's new] filing essentially is an admission of evidence tampering, and could be problematic.
...defense attorney Tim Parlatore...said the revelation “[of] loss of specific document locations is a destruction of exculpatory evidence,” he added. “I went through all of the boxes at NARA and the document order was important because it was clear to us that the boxes had been untouched since leaving the White House.
“For prosecutors who are trying to prove that the defendants knowingly possessed these documents to then destroy the evidence that would undermine that claim is a very serious violation,” he added.