Donald Trump's legal counsel is requesting the judge presiding over his classified documents case allow the government to re-create a secure location at Mar-a-Lago where the former president can convene with his lawyers.
The team of Justice Department prosecutors led by special counsel Jack Smith have sought to block Trump from releasing any classified materials that are to be shared with his team in the case, seeking a so-called protective order in the case.
BIDEN CELEBRATES ONE-YEAR CHIPS ANNIVERSARY BY VOWING TO CONTINUE SECURING SUPPLY CHAIN
Trump has vehemently opposed several of the proposals by the government for the protective order and argued Wednesday it would be impossible to take regular trips to a courthouse sensitive compartmented information facility to discuss classified records produced to them during discovery.
"So that President Trump and his legal team may discuss classified information in a substantive manner as regularly as necessary to prepare an adequate defense, we respectfully request that the Court approve re-establishment of a secure facility in which President Trump previously discussed (and reviewed) classified information during his term as President of the United States," according to the filing from Trump's counsel.
Trump's lawyers also pushed back on the government's allegation that the request is based on an "inconvenience," arguing it would be more cost-effective than sending the former president and his security detail to remote facilities, such as the SCIF set up at the southern Florida federal courthouse.
Moreover, the former president's legal team again objected to the government's request to bar Trump and his counsel from discussing "relevant purportedly classified material inside an appropriate secure facility at or near his personal residence."
Trump's team requested that the government approve the use of the previously approved secure location during his time as president so that he can communicate with his attorneys about the sensitive records at issue in the case.
Doing so would allow Trump to work with his lawyers "without the need to mobilize his security detail and state and local law enforcement every time he has a conversation regarding his defense as it relates to purportedly classified information," his lawyers argued.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The request comes just one day before lawyers for Trump and co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira are slated to appear Thursday morning in Florida federal court to enter pleas to new charges added on July 27 to an indictment in the classified documents case.
Trump has signaled he would skip his hearing at the Alto Lee Adams Sr. United States Courthouse. He has already pleaded "not guilty" to three new charges brought late last month, including two counts of obstruction and one count of unlawful retention of national defense information.