Left: Special counsel Jack Smith turns from the podium after speaking about an indictment of former President Donald Trump (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin). Center: An undated photo shows U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts via AP, File). Right: Trump stands on stage at the Libertarian National Convention in May 2024 (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana).
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Thursday asked the judge in his Jan. 6 prosecution to keep a stay in place for a month so that the defense and special counsel Jack Smith can file their “immunity appendices” at the same time — after the 2024 election has come and gone.
On Oct. 10, several days after Smith’s immunity brief went public, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that the prosecution’s redacted appendix should also go public since Trump’s “‘concern with the political consequences of these proceedings’ is not a cognizable legal prejudice.” At the same time, the judge stayed her order and gave Trump’s team seven days to “evaluate litigation options.”
Seven days later now, the defense has responded by asking the judge, a Barack Obama appointee, to keep the stay in place until Nov. 14, claiming “the public has been poisoned by a one-sided prosecutorial narrative.”
“If, as here, a prosecutor, during a highly contested political campaign, is granted leave to submit enormous filings publicly examining a President’s decision-making while in office, future Presidents will be far more reluctant to take the ‘bold and unhesitating action’ required of them,” the defense said. “This is true even if ordinary procedures are followed, with the President making the first submission, but it is especially problematic where neither the Constitution, nor the rules of criminal procedure based on our founding principles, have been followed, thus wrongly allowing the prosecution to file first, in anticipation of a motion to dismiss.”
While asserting that a stay extension would not “eliminate these harms” to Trump “and the public,” the defense said it would “at least bring these proceedings closer to a structure mandated by the Supreme Court and Constitutionally required.”
Trump’s lawyers, leaving aside whether Smith’s evidence-related filings actually are “politically motivated” and timed for election season, then cited a series of critical articles — penned by anyone from George W. Bush-era Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith to CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig — to argue that there is at least “a concerning appearance of election interference.”
The defense argued that a stay extension would promote “public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings and a court’s duty to remain apolitical,” similar to an argument that was made in favor of pushing back sentencing in Trump’s hush-money case.
Will it work?
Obama administration and Jan. 6 Committee attorney Eric Columbus, for one, saw the filing as a “prelude” to Trump lawyers asking the U.S. Supreme Court to get involved — again.
This filing (which Judge Chutkan will not grant) is a prelude to Trump seeking relief from SCOTUS. Look for more filings today, maybe an intermediate stop at the DC Circuit (where he won’t win).
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) October 17, 2024
Read the defense filing here.
Marisa Sarnoff contributed to this report.
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