OAN’s Abril Elfi
1:58 PM – Thursday, January 4, 2024
Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have filed a “powerhouse” motion, which calls for a judge to hold Special Counsel Jack Smith in contempt regarding the 2020 election interference case.
On Thursday, the 45th president’s attorneys filed the motion calling for a federal judge to hold Smith in contempt of court for purportedly “repeatedly violating” a stay order in his election investigation.
Smith’s legal battle against the 2024 GOP front-runner is on hold while Trump’s legal team files an appeal arguing that he is immune from prosecution.
The trial had reportedly been set for March 4th.
Trump Attorney John Lauro wrote in the filing that “the Stay Order is clear, straightforward and unambiguous.”
“All substantive proceedings in this Court are halted. Despite this clarity, the prosecutors began violating the Stay almost immediately,” he continued.
The court halted proceedings within five days, according to Lauro, and 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. “Smith filed an expansive motion in limine less than 10 days later, which teems with partisan rhetoric, including false claims that President Trump ‘propagates irrelevant disinformation’ both ‘within the courtroom’ and ‘outside of it.’”
Additionally, according to Lauro, the motion “mirrors the dishonest talking points of the Biden administration,” which falsely claim that President Trump was to blame for the events of January 6th, 2021 when, in reality, he had 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.”
During the U.S. Capitol breach on January 6th, Kash Patel, the chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, also said that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had postponed calling for the National Guard in the days preceding the incident, not Trump. “Mayor Bowser wrote a letter herself on approximately Jan. 4. … declining further requests for National Guard services outside of the 346 National Guardsmen already authorized,” Patel said.
Smith and the federal prosecutors, according to Lauro, have to be placed in contempt of court, made to “immediately ” rescind their motion in limine and “improper” productions, and prohibited from making any more filings while the stay is in effect.
Lauro additionally suggested that they evaluate “monetary sanctions in the amount of President Trump’s reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred in responding to the prosecutors’ improper productions and filings.”
In August, Trump entered a not guilty plea in federal court to all four federal charges resulting from Smith’s investigation into January 6th, 2021, and alleged election interference in 2020.
Trump faces allegations of conspiring to defraud the United States, attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and blocking an official proceeding.
Smith submitted a case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refuting Trump’s assertion of presidential immunity.
In an attempt to expedite their review of the immunity claim before it was fully considered by a federal appeals court, Smith filed the appeal, however, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected it last month.
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