Key Evidence was Tampered with in Trump Classified Docs Case

What’s happening: In a stunning admission by Special Counsel Jack Smith, federal prosecutors tampered with the classified documents that were seized during the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago two years ago.

• Investigations: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is launching an investigation into the evidence tampering and even “whether the Special Counsel’s Office misled a federal court.”

Why it matters: Just days after the prosecution admitted that this key evidence was altered, Judge Aileen Canon indefinitely postponed the trial, handing Donald Trump a major win as he faces down several criminal trials.

Photo stunt: Last week’s court filings proved that FBI agents attached cover sheets to at least seven of the files. This revelation demonstrates that agents not only manipulated evidence, but that they misled the public about the authenticity of the famous photo taken in Mar-a-Lago on the day of the raid.

• Explaining away: The prosecution is now claiming, “[If] the investigative team found a document with classification markings, it removed the document, segregated it, and replaced it with a placeholder sheet. The investigative team used classified cover sheets for that purpose.”

Thrown out? Donald Trump's defense team is leveraging these recent disclosures of evidence tampering to bolster their argument for a motion to dismiss the case entirely due to prosecutorial misconduct.

• Piling on the problems: Further questions are being raised as to how FBI agents were even aware of the classification status of each document, whether agents had the proper security clearance to handle the evidence, and if the agents knew which documents were declassified by Trump while he was in office.