Special counsel Jack Smith said Friday that he will keep making discovery filings and motions in the case accusing Donald Trump of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, dismissing the former president’s calls to initiate contempt proceedings for keeping up with the filing schedule.
“The defendant claims that the Government intentionally violated the Court’s stay order, and promoted a political agenda, by fulfilling its continuing discovery obligations and voluntarily complying with otherwise suspended deadlines. That is false,” assistant special counsel Thomas P. Windom wrote in a three-page response to Trump’s contempt motion.
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Windom said that despite Trump’s complaints, the “Government has not violated—and never intentionally would violate—an order of the Court, and the defendant’s recycled allegations of partisanship and prosecutorial misconduct remain baseless.”
Trump’s attorneys argue U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan should sanction Smith and two of his prosecutors with civil contempt and force them to withdraw any material they have submitted for the case, citing Chutkan’s temporary stay on the case while Trump’s presidential immunity claims are weighed by an appeals court.
“The Stay Order is clear, straightforward, and unambiguous,” a defense attorney wrote in a recent filing, adding that “all substantive proceedings in this Court are halted.”
Chutkan’s stay prohibits “any further proceedings that would move this case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation on Defendant” while the appellate court weighs Trump’s bid to have his case dismissed on immunity grounds, according to her order. Windom argues the government is merely continuing to “voluntarily satisfy the remaining deadlines” including its plans to file a witness list to Trump by Feb. 19.
Windom’s response comes just days before a three-judge panel on the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit will weigh Jan. 6 arguments on why Trump is or isn’t immune to Smith’s prosecution, where the subsequent losing party could then appeal to the Supreme Court for final examination.
Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Trump, charged him last year with four felonies alleging he illegally conspired to overturn the 2020 election and obstructed an official proceeding during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The indictment charges Trump with taking various steps to interfere with the electoral vote certification based on claims of widespread voter fraud he knew were false.
The government’s response comes on the same day the Justice Department released annual expenses showing nearly $25 million has been spent investigating and prosecuting Trump. The most recent report reveals Smith’s office spent $7.4 million on prosecuting Trump between April and September alone, while other Justice Department entities spent roughly $7.3 in support of Smith’s efforts.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges and is fighting Chutkan’s ruling against his bid to dismiss the charges on immunity grounds, arguing that allowing them to go forward could lead to a slippery slope of future presidents being indicted.
“The 234-year unbroken tradition of not prosecuting presidents for official acts, despite vociferous calls to do so from across the political spectrum, provides powerful evidence of it,” D. John Sauer, a lawyer who has handled Trump’s appeals, wrote in a recent court filing.
Trump also faces another indictment by Smith over his alleged mishandling of classified documents, while Trump is also charged in New York over alleged hush money payments made to a porn star and a sweeping racketeering indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, accusing Trump of conspiring to subvert the election there.
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It’s unclear whether Chutkan will continue to communicate with parties on the docket while Trump lawyers and the special counsel’s office feud over the constraints of the current stay order.
The three-judge panel, comprising two appointees of President Joe Biden and one appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, is set to hear arguments from attorneys for Trump and Smith in a hearing Tuesday morning.
