President Joe Biden’s Department of Defense will have to answer to a lawsuit filed against it by America First Legal (AFL).
According to the conservative legal foundation, it decided to sue the DoD to obtain documents connected to former President Barack Obama.
The legal foundation’s website stated it filed the suit “to compel the immediate release of documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding the secretive Presidential Information Technology Committee (PITC) created by former President Barack Obama.”
The documents, it claims, “may change legal presumptions regarding the prosecution of President Trump.”
What’s happening?
Back in January, AFL filed a FOIA request with the DoD’s Defense Information Systems Agency in an effort to better understand the PITC committee originally created by the Obama administration.
There’s a reason the AFL wants to gain a deeper understanding of the PITC, citing that “it creates a presumption that the President controls all information he receives.”
The AFL explained on its website that such information could be extremely relevant in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of the former president.
“The Defendant [DOD] has violated the FOIA by failing to reasonably search for records responsive to AFL’s FOIA request and release nonexempt records within the prescribed time limit.”
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DOD sued over Obama-era directive on classified documents https://t.co/Irf9aUnHPM— Dogs Chained And Throttled On X (@baileyjer) April 5, 2024
“If information stored on the PITC network formed the basis for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of former President Trump, that evidence should have been disclosed to the former President and may be relevant to his liability,” the AFL’s statement read.
The AFL added, “This is especially significant given the Special Counsel’s case in Florida hinges on the notion that former President Trump was not “authorized” to retain certain documents. The PITC memo could create a reasonable belief for any President that he has such authority.”
“Baseless” prosecution?
Trump’s classified documents-related charges could be “baseless,” according to the AFL, as it suggests that any records allegedly destroyed by Trump “are still preserved within the EOP or the U.S. Department of Defense as part of PITC-created information systems.”
Should that be the case, Smith’s case against the former president would be “baseless.”
“Alternatively, 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,” said Dan Epstein, America First Legal Vice President.
There are many different turning gears related to the ongoing prosecution of Trump, but it appears that this could get interesting, depending on the results of the lawsuit.
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Author: Ryan Ledendecker
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