Left inset: Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump gestures at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York (AP Photo/Evan Vucci). Right: This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken at 11:46 a.m. EDT and provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Hurricane Milton in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 (NOAA via AP).
Defense lawyers for Donald Trump asked his Jan. 6 judge for extra weeks to file documents relating to discovery, presidential immunity, and a renewed challenge of special counsel Jack Smith’s authority, telling the judge that Hurricane Milton wreaked serious havoc — “displacing and severely disrupting Florida defense counsel[.]”
The Monday filing from attorneys Todd Blanche, Emil Bove, John Lauro and Gregory Singer asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to push back a Nov. 7 deadline to Nov. 21 so they can file three separate documents on the proposed new date: a response in support of their motion to toss the case based on presidential immunity; a reply in support of the argument Mar-a-Lago case Judge Aileen Cannon accepted in July, that Smith was unlawfully appointed and unlawfully funded; and a motion to compel “immunity-related discovery” from the prosecution.
The motion for a continuance of the Nov. 7 deadline assigned blame to Hurricane Milton, saying that although the defense has filed “multiple substantive” documents in the last three weeks of October the storm “severely” impacted their ability to move forward on the current schedule.
The latest filing did not get into specifics about how exactly the hurricane caused the defense attorneys problems individually, but the lawyers said in a footnote they’d be prepared to elaborate under seal if Chutkan asks for more information. From a footnote, calling the “personal details” of Trump’s counsel irrelevant to the public:
At the Court’s request, defense counsel will provide specific descriptions of the nature and extent of the hardships imposed by the hurricane. To the extent the Court requests such detail, counsel respectfully requests that the Court permit a sealed filing in light of the extraordinary press coverage of this case, see In Re Press Application for Access to the Government’s Motion for Immunity Determinations in Case No. 23-Cr-357, United States of America v. Donald J. Trump, No. 1:24-mc-00122 (D.D.C.), and the irrelevance of counsel’s personal details to the merits.
The filing claimed that Hurricane Milton’s “disruptions” have “frustrated” the defense’s ability to meet Nov. 7 deadlines and that this amounts to “good cause” for their extension request.
“Specifically, the impacts of the hurricane, which remain ongoing for certain counsel, have substantially slowed progress on the Response,” the filing said. “This, in turn, has limited counsel’s ability to thoroughly consider the Court’s extensive classified and unclassified discovery order and prepare an appropriate Motion to Compel.”
“As defense counsel must travel to review these materials and consider whether to incorporate any of them into the Response and Motion to Compel, this presents a significant obstacle to filing on the current schedule,” the defense added.
What does special counsel Jack Smith think of this? According to the defense, prosecutors didn’t oppose a “brief continuance” but provided no input as to how much extra time they should receive.
Read the latest Trump filing here.
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