Former President Donald Trump’s campaign announced Thursday that it had filed a “powerhouse motion” to hold special counsel Jack Smith in contempt of court for continuing forward with his 2020 election interference case.
The filing — submitted to Washington, D.C., federal District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan who is overseeing the case — noted last month she had ordered a stay in any further proceedings while Trump’s appeal over whether presidential immunity applies to charges Smith has brought against Trump.
Trump’s appeal to the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals “automatically stays any further proceedings that would move this case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation,” Chutkan’s order said, according to the Associated Press.
Smith tried unsuccessfully late last month to get the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue to expedite the appeal, but the Court denied the request, so the review will proceed through the normal process.
The D.C. Circuit Court is set is hear arguments Tuesday in the case and signaled it intends to move quickly, the AP said.
Despite Chutkan’s Dec. 13 order staying proceedings at the federal court level, Trump’s filing says Smith’s office served on Trump for 4,000 pages of “additional discovery’ on December 17, 2023, including what the prosecutors’ production letter described as several hundred video and audio recordings.”
The next day, Smith’s prosecutor’s served a “purported exhibit list” for the trial.
Trump’s filing contends Smith’s office is seeking to “score cheap political points against President Trump on behalf of the Biden Campaign.”
“In so doing, the prosecutors have repeatedly and willfully disregarded the Court’s explicit instructions. Such malignant conduct undermines the integrity of this proceeding and warrants severe sanction,” Trump’s legal team argued.
Should Jack Smith be held in contempt of court?
His attorneys requested that all Smith’s discovery requests be withdrawn and that prosecutors be required to obtain permission from the court before submitting any filings “to ensure that any further attempts to violate the Stay Order will be summarily denied.”
Trump’s lawyers argued sanctions for violating the stay the judge could impose include removal of prosecutors from the case or dismissal of the prosecution against Trump altogether.
Trump’s legal team also specifically called on Chutkan to impose monetary sanctions on Smith’s office in “the amount of President Trump’s reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred in responding to the prosecutors’ improper productions and filings, including in litigating this Motion.”
“Accordingly, the Court should order the prosecutors to show cause why the Court should not hold them in contempt and impose the Requested Sanctions,” Trump’s filing concluded.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement regarding the court filing, “President Trump has filed a powerhouse motion to hold Crooked Joe Biden’s henchman, Jack Smith, in contempt of Court for repeatedly violating the stay order in the Washington DC J6 Witch Hunt.”
“President Trump has filed a powerhouse motion to hold Crooked Joe Biden’s henchman, Deranged Jack Smith, in contempt of Court for repeatedly violating the stay order in the Washington DC J6 Witch Hunt…” pic.twitter.com/g62pofK4wJ
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) January 4, 2024
“Smith was ordered to take no further action in the trial until the Presidential Immunity issue is resolved, which should be a full dismissal of this ‘case’ because President Trump was carrying out his duty as President to investigate the Rigged and Stolen 2020 Presidential Election,” he added.
“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,” Cheung said.
He closed, “As a result, President Trump is seeking to hold Deranged Jack in contempt of Court. No prosecutor is above the law.”
The AP reported that Smith’s prosecutors want to keep its election interference case on track for a March 4 trial date.
“Prosecutors acknowledged in a filing late last month that the case had been paused, but they said the government would ‘continue to meet its own deadlines as previously determined’ by the court ‘to promote the prompt resumption of the pretrial schedule’ if and when the case returns to Chutkan,” the news outlet said.
