Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are fighting efforts by federal prosecutors to streamline arguments and appeals in the 2020 election interference case, arguing they could unfairly influence the 2024 presidential election.
In documents filed Monday in federal court in Washington, the defense argued that special counsel Jack Smith’s plan to file an exaggerated report about whether certain actions by Trump during his time in office were official or unofficial acts is improper and should not be allowed.
“Departures from these practices should never be tolerated because they risk allowing prosecutors to influence a national election, but even worse is the Office of Special Counsel’s attempt to do so by subverting the criminal process in order to file a 180-page attack dossier of false statements,” Trump’s lawyers argued.
Prosecutors from Smith’s office say such a filing is necessary to address the Supreme Court’s concerns about presidential immunity and to limit the number of appeals. They are asking U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the election interference case, to allow them to file a 180-page report on the issue by Thursday.
Trump’s lawyers urged Chutkan to recuse himself from “this monster.”
“The requested 180-page report amounts to a premature and inadequate special counsel report,” the lawyers argued, adding that Smith’s “streamlining” proposal “is the kind of ‘highly rushed’ process before the 2024 presidential election that the Supreme Court has already criticized.”
They also called it an attempt by prosecutors to “falsely publicize a biased list of complaints.”
Smith’s office declined to comment Monday night.
If Chutkan accepts the prosecutors’ motion, it is unclear how much of the allegations will be made public.
In a separate filing over the weekend, Smith’s office said redactions would be necessary because “the opening statement and its exhibits contain a significant amount of confidential material as defined in the protective order.”
Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct official business, obstruction and attempted obstruction of official business, and conspiracy against the rights of others for allegedly trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
He has pleaded not guilty and said the charges were politically motivated. The case was originally scheduled to go to trial in March but was stalled for months after Trump’s lawyers filed a Supreme Court challenge arguing that his actions were protected by presidential immunity.
The Supreme Court ruled in July that some of Trump’s actions were protected by immunity and sent the case back to Chutkan to decide whether Trump’s other actions were official or unofficial.
A trial date has not yet been set.
