How One Move Illustrates Trump’s Tactics

We want to try something a little different this week and delve into a single motion filed in Donald Trump’s classified documents case in Florida. We thought it might be useful to explore how it informs the larger legal and political strategies Trump has used trin all of the criminal matters he is facing.

The motion, filed on Monday night, makes a weighty accusation.

It claims that prosecutors working for the special counsel, Jack Smith, who brought the indictment, failed to properly preserve the evidence at the heart of the case: the 45 boxes of documents the F.B.I. seized two years ago during a search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and residence in Florida.

Trump’s lawyers also made a big request of Judge Aileen Cannon, who is handling the case. They asked her to dismiss the charges altogether or, barring that, to do something that would have the same effect: toss out the evidence found during the Mar-a-Lago search, including the trove of 32 classified documents that Trump has been charged with removing from the White House.

In the broadest sense, the motion takes aim not at the strength of the charges Trump is facing, but rather at the integrity of the underlying inquiry.

It’s an effort to knock out the foundations of the case and, as such, is part of a barrage of similar motions that his lawyers have launched against the investigation and the investigators.

Trump has for decades conflated legal problems with public relations fights. And that approach is one his entire legal apparatus appears to have embraced since he was first indicted in New York in March 2023.