Former President Donald Trump’s legal team filed a “powerhouse” motion on Thursday asking Washington D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to hold Special Counsel Jack Smith in contempt of court for continuing his prosecution of the 2024 contender despite a court-ordered freeze on the case.
“The prosecutors have cast these hallowed mandates aside 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,” the filing states.
Smith initially targeted Trump over his Jan. 6, 2021 actions with four federal charges accusing the Republican of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy against rights, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding. Trump pleaded not guilty on all four indictments in August ahead of his March 4 trial.
In December, Chutkan, who has eagerly advanced Biden administration’s 2024 election meddling, ordered Smith to halt the case while a federal appeals court weighs whether Trump can claim presidential immunity for all four federal charges. The Biden prosecutor tried to expedite the appeals process but was denied by the Supreme Court.
Despite the “clear, straightforward, and unambiguous” language warning all activity on the case must halt, Trump’s legal team said Smith “began violating the Stay almost immediately” by serving “thousands of pages of additional discovery, together with a purported draft exhibit list.”
Just 10 days after the Trump team threatened to point out Smith’s violation to the court, the Biden official filed a motion in limine that “mirrors the Biden Administration’s dishonest talking points, asserting, again falsely, that President Trump was responsible for the events of January 6, 2021, when in truth he called for peaceful and patriotic assembly and protest.”
“Unstated, but obvious, is the prosecutors’ desperate effort to harass President Trump and prevent his likely victory in the 2024 Presidential Election,” the filing states.
Trump’s lawyers requested that Smith not only be held in contempt but also withdraw his MIL, which “teems with partisan rhetoric” and false accusations. They’re also requesting that Smith be “assessed monetary sanctions in the amount of President Trump’s reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred in responding to the prosecutors’ improper productions and filings.”
“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. As a result, President Trump is seeking to hold Deranged Jack in contempt of Court. No prosecutor is above the law,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.