Lawyers for former President Donald Trump filed a motion on Thursday to hold special counsel Jack Smith in contempt of court after the federal judge overseeing his Jan. 6. ‘election interference’ case put it on hold pending appeals over the question of whether the 45th president is covered under immunity.
The filing raps Smith for “repeatedly violating” U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s order staying the case until the appeals process works its way out. The case was scheduled to go to trial on March 4.
“The Stay Order is clear, straightforward, and unambiguous,” Trump attorney John Lauro wrote in the filing Thursday. “All substantive proceedings in this Court are halted. Despite this clarity, the prosecutors began violating the Stay almost immediately.”
The attorney went on to say in his filing that within the first five days of the court pausing proceedings, Smith’s team “served thousands of pages of additional discovery, together with a purported draft exhibit list.”
“Through counsel, President Trump advised that he rejected the prosecutors’ unlawful productions, that their actions violated the Stay Order, and that he would seek relief if their malicious conduct continued,” he said.
Lauro also wrote that Smith filed an “expansive motion in limine less than 10 days later,” which he said “teems with partisan rhetoric, including false claims that President Trump ‘propagates irrelevant disinformation’ both ‘within the courtroom’ and ‘outside of it.’”
He said that motion “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.”
“In this manner, the prosecutors seek to weaponize the Stay to spread political propaganda, knowing that President Trump would not fully respond because the Court relieved him of the burdens of litigation during the Stay,” Lauro wrote. “Worse, the prosecutors have announced their intention to continue this partisan-driven misconduct indefinitely, effectively converting this Court’s docket into an arm of the Biden campaign.”
Fox News added:
Lauro argued that Smith and federal prosecutors should be held in contempt of court, be required to “immediately” withdraw their motion in liming and “improper” productions, and be forbidden from submitting further filings during the stay. Lauro also said they should assess “monetary sanctions in the amount of President Trump’s reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred in responding to the prosecutors’ improper productions and filings.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told the outlet that the 45th president 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.”
“Smith was ordered to not take any further action in the trial court 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,” Cheung said. “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 noted further that “as a result, President Trump is seeking to hold Deranged Jack in contempt of Court.”
“No prosecutor is above the law,” Cheung said.
