Former President Donald Trump accused special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday of violating a court order pausing the proceedings in the case against the former president in which he is accused of unlawfully plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump’s re-election campaign said Trump wants to hold Smith in contempt of court.
Lawyers for Trump pointed to a stay of the proceedings granted by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, after they appealed her rejection of their request to dismiss the case. Although the appeal, which hinges on presidential immunity and double jeopardy claims, was taken up by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Smith’s team went along making submissions anyway, Trump’s attorneys noted.
Prosecutors violated last month’s stay “almost immediately” by serving thousands of pages of discovery and a “purported” draft exhibit list, the 15-page filing said. Despite a “warning” from Trump that he would seek relief if their “malicious conduct” continued, prosecutors then filed a motion filled with “partisan rhetoric, including false claims,” the filing added.
“In this manner, the prosecutors seek to weaponize the Stay to spread political propaganda, knowing that President Trump would not fully respond because the Court relieved him of the burdens of litigation during the Stay,” Trump’s legal team wrote. “Worse, the prosecutors have announced their intention to continue this partisan-driven misconduct indefinitely, effectively converting this Court’s docket into an arm of [President Joe Biden’s re-election] Campaign.”
Trump’s lawyers asked the federal court in Washington, D.C., to order prosecutors to “show cause” for why they should not be held in contempt, be required to withdraw their filings, be forbidden from making future productions without express permission from the court, and assessed monetary sanctions for attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred in the response.
Smith’s team did not immediately issue a reply to the filing, declining comment to the media.
In making her order, Chutkan said the stay would pause “any further proceedings that would move this case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation on Defendant.” But there were some caveats, including to stress that stayed deadlines and proceedings have not been “permanently vacated” and protective measures — such as the gag order against Trump — would remain in place unless a higher court ruled otherwise.
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With the Supreme Court refusing to quickly take up the question of whether presidential immunity provides Trump broad protections against prosecution, a three-judge panel in the federal appeals court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on January 9. The trial is currently set to start on March 4 — one day before Super Tuesday — but that may change depending on how long it takes for the presidential immunity issue to be settled.
As he runs a third campaign for the White House, Trump is facing three other criminal cases, including another one led by Smith over the former president’s handling of classified documents, as well as civil litigation. Trump has broadly denied any wrongdoing and has argued that politically motivated prosecutors are conducting a “witch hunt” against him.
“Rather than respect the rule of law, Jack Smith unilaterally decided to disobey the stay order and continue with his harassing litigation, all done in order to keep parroting the pathetic Biden Campaign’s corrupt talking points in the name of election interference,” said Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung in a statement from the former president’s re-election campaign. “As a result, President Trump is seeking to hold Deranged Jack in contempt of Court. No prosecutor is above the law.”