Former Trump adviser Roger Stone is demanding to view a full copy of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election interference, arguing that the report is crucial for his legal defense, according to federal court filings submitted by Stone’s legal team late Friday.
Attorney General Bill Barr is reportedly preparing a redacted version of the report to send to congress next week, but Democrats are demanding to see the full version. Now Stone’s attorneys are asking the court as part of his legal strategy to order the Justice Department to provide Stone with an unredacted copy.
“His lawyers must be allowed to review the Report in its entirety because it contains the government’s evidence and conclusions on matters essential to Stone’s defense,” said Stone’s attorneys in the Friday filing.
Stone has been charged with obstruction of justice, false statements, and witness intimidation related to the Mueller investigation.
In the filings, Stone’s legal team also claimed that the case should be thrown out because the Mueller investigation had an improper basis. Alternatively, they argued that the case should never have been assigned to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Jackson was assigned the case because the department initially tied Stone’s indictment to unrelated election-tampering charges against Russian nationals, according to Bloomberg.
“Now that the Department of Justice has concluded that there was no conspiracy between Russian agents and any American citizen, including Roger Stone, this ‘connection’ is unsubstantiated,” said the court filings.
