Jack Smith Scores Another Win in Trump’s January 6 Case
Judge Tanya Chutkan is blowing past Donald Trump’s efforts to waylay his January 6 trial schedule, deciding on Tuesday that special counsel Jack Smith will be allowed to move forward with a proposal to submit a 180-page brief of evidence related to the case.
Trump’s legal team, which includes Todd Blanche and John Lauro, have continually argued in recent weeks that such a brief would be “incredibly unfair” to Trump so close to the election. But Chutkan’s latest ruling plainly rejects that line of thinking, determining that the matter of the election is irrelevant to the case’s timeline, and that Trump’s legal team had failed to follow the proper procedures in order to legitimately reconsider the schedule.
“For the second time in a week, Defendant urges reconsideration of the current pretrial schedule in a brief intended to respond to a separate issue, and without actually filing a motion to that effect,” Chutkan wrote. “The court has already addressed the scheduling objections Defendant raised when he was given an opportunity to do so.”
According to the judge, Smith’s brief would also resolve issues pertaining to the lingering issues of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling expanding presidential immunity “at the earliest possible stages” of the trial. “That is reason enough to grant the present motion,” Chutkan wrote.
Smith filed a superseding indictment against Trump in August. The pared-down indictment largely focuses on Trump’s private and non-official actions, since the Supreme Court granted the former president broad immunity for official acts, thereby nixing them as evidence.
The case hinges on the allegation that Trump knew he had lost the election but still tried to subvert the results, as proven by conversations he had with then-Vice President Mike Pence and his lawyers. Admissions by Trump from earlier this month—including that he lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden “by a whisker”—could further damn his chances at trial.
“Allowing a brief from the Government is not ‘contrary to law procedure, and custom,’ as Defendant claims,” Chutkan continued. “It is simply how litigation works.”
Trump’s attorneys had attempted to pre-empt the brief by describing it as a “180-page false hit piece” and mocked the idea that the document would be of “great assistance” to the court, reported The Hill.
“The requested 180-page brief would be tantamount to a premature and improper Special Counsel report,” Trump’s legal team said.