Left: Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to the media about an indictment of former President Donald Trump in August 2023 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File. Right: Trump speaks at an April rally in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer).
Special counsel Jack Smith’s expansive immunity brief finally hit the Jan. 6 docket on Wednesday despite the efforts of Donald Trump’s defense to claim the revelations therein were inappropriately timed by the DOJ to impact the nearing election. Now that much anticipated juicy details of the former president’s private conduct to overturn his 2020 election loss have gone public, however, Trump lawyers expressed no interest in rebutting the allegations until after the 2024 election has come and gone.
Though the defense recently railed against the prospect of the special counsel filing an up to 180-page “monstrosity” outlining the case that Trump knew he lost the 2020 election, mocked “Kraken” lawyer Sidney Powell’s theories as “crazy,” did not share evidence of his fraud claims with allies when they asked for it, and even “made up figures” about non-citizens voting “from whole cloth,” Trump’s attorneys are once again requesting substantial delay.
Trump’s team has asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a Barack Obama appointee, to grant them five extra weeks to respond to Smith, which would push an Oct. 17 deadline all the way back to Nov. 21 — the week before Thanksgiving. The defense demanded an “equal opportunity” to respond — likewise seeking up to 180 pages of space — and said that the “enormous undertaking” at hand shows they have “good cause.”
At the outset, the defense noted that the special counsel previously received an extra three weeks to draft his brief in light of the Supreme Court immunity decision in Trump v. United States, but that was before it was clear how lengthy the brief would be. But rather than immediately rebutting the allegations the defense said would fill the “public record at this very sensitive time in our nation’s history” and “basically load up on what [prosecutors] think this case is about” close to the election, Trump’s lawyers are slamming on the brakes.
“As an initial matter, the Court should expand the page limits for President Trump;s Response to match the 180 pages provided to the Special Counsel. The Court has decided, over President Trump’s objections, that extensive factual submissions are appropriate at this juncture,” the Wednesday filing said. “Having made that determination, President Trump must have an equal opportunity to submit and address facts bearing on immunity, and to rebut the Special Counsel’s misleading submissions. Accordingly, the Court should grant President Trump leave to file a 180-page Response.”
Calling the extra five weeks “entirely reasonable” under the circumstances — “given the extraordinary, and only recently disclosed, quadrupling” of Smith’s filing on “multiple unprecedented and momentous questions” — the defense asserted that there’s “good cause” for an extension. After all, they still want to challenge the constitutionality of Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel in the hopes that the Jan. 6 case suffers the same fate as the former president’s Mar-a-Lago classified documents prosecution.
“At the same time, President Trump will continue his work on multiple other pending submissions, including a supplement to his statutory motion to dismiss, a motion for leave to file an Appointments and Appropriations motion, and an expedited response to the Special Counsel’s motion to seal, all of which are: (1) due in the near future, and (2) draw significant resources from the Response,” the defense said. “Adequately responding to a 180-page brief, together with hundreds of exhibits, is an enormous undertaking under any circumstance.”
“To do so by October 17—while at the same time grappling with the Special Counsel’s motion to seal and the other dispositive motions that President Trump must file—is not practical and is at odds with the Supreme Court’s directive to carefully consider these momentous issues. Accordingly, good cause exists to extend the Response deadline by 5 weeks, to November 21, 2024,” the filing added.
Read the Trump motion here.
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