America First Legal sues Biden DOD for concealing ‘secretive Obama order’ that could exonerate Trump in seized docs case

AFL argued that the documents, which it requested via a Freedom of Information Act request in January, "could exonerate" Donald Trump in his classified documents case.

According to the legal group, the PITC makes it appear as though the president has the authority to control all the information he or she receives, thus it could act as proof that Trump believed he was within his rights to hold on to the documents in question.

It was pointed out that if the records allegedly destroyed by the former president still exist within the Executive Office of the President of the DOD via systems created by the PITC, the claim he got rid of them "may be baseless."

AFL also noted that if PITC-stored information helped to form Special Counsel Jack Smith's prosecution of Trump, that fact should have been disclosed to him and his legal team ahead of time.

"America First Legal's suit today raises significant legal questions the Biden Administration must confront," AFL Vice President Dan Epstein wrote in a statement. "First, the President's Information Technology Committee presumes that all information received by the President is within his control. That principle complicates the indictment by the Special Counsel’s Office, particularly on the question of what President Trump was authorized to access and retain."

"Alternatively," he added, "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."