Trump Wants Jack Smith Held in Contempt in Jan. 6 Case (1)

Donald Trump accused Special Counsel Jack Smith of violating a court order that put the former president’s election-interference prosecution on hold while he appeals a ruling that struck down his immunity defense.

In a filing Thursday in Washington, Trump’s lawyers argued that Smith and his team wrongfully ignored a stay of the case by continuing to file new motions and serve thousands of pages of evidence on the defense during his appeal. Trump asked US District Judge Tanya Chutkan to order Smith to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt and sanctioned by the court.

WATCH: Former President Trump’s legal team is appealing the Colorado Supreme Court ruling.

Source: Bloomberg

“The prosecutors have cast these hallowed mandates aside to score cheap political points against President Trump on behalf of the Biden Campaign,” Trump’s lawyers said in the filing. “In so doing, the prosecutors have repeatedly and willfully disregarded the Court’s explicit instructions.”

The government has said in recent court filings that it would continue to meet some deadlines to ensure that the trial “proceeds promptly” if Trump’s appeal fails.

Smith’s office declined to comment on Trump’s latest filing.

The criminal case is one of four Trump faces as he campaigns to return to the White House in the November presidential election. Chutkan previously rejected Trump’s argument that he’s immune from prosecution over actions he took as president, including his effort to overturn the result of the 2020 election that culminated in a deadly attack on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Supreme Court

Both sides are jockeying for the upper hand after the appeals panel agreed to expedite consideration of the case and hear arguments on Jan. 9, potentially followed by a decision within days. The losing side is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court — which isn’t required to take up the case.

Trump’s filing on Thursday took issue with several motions filed with Chutkan in recent days, including a request that the judge restrict the former president from injecting “partisan political attacks and irrelevant and prejudicial issues” into a trial.

“The Court should not permit the defendant to turn the courtroom into a forum in which he propagates irrelevant disinformation, and should reject his attempt to inject politics into this proceeding,” Smith’s team said in that filing.

The case is US v. Trump, 23-cr-00257, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

(Updates with detail from Trump’s immunity appeal.)

--With assistance from Chris Strohm.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net

Peter Jeffrey

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