Trump Lawyers Rip Jack Smith for ‘Fundamentally Unfair’ Move

Donald Trump’s defense team is asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to block the Department of Justice (DOJ) from filing an opening brief in the federal election case against the former president later this week.
Special Counsel Jack Smith stated in court documents over the weekend that his team’s upcoming filing in the case would not exceed 180 pages. The opening brief will deal with how the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity impacts the charges against Trump, who is facing four felony counts related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
In the motion filed on Monday, signed by Trump attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche, the defense team argues that the prosecutors’ opening brief on presidential immunity is “unprecedented,” adding that Smith’s office is “seeking permission to file a document that would quadruple the standard page limits in this District.” Principal briefs in the District of Columbia are not supposed to exceed 50 pages, per the district’s rules.
The motion highlighted the DOJ’s unwritten “60-day rule” in which the department has agreed to not take prosecutorial steps that could influence an upcoming election. Prosecutors’ opening brief is required to be filed to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan by September 26, 40 days before voters head to the ballot box for the 2024 presidential election in which Trump is running to return to the Oval Office.
Trump’s team called Smith’s opening brief “fundamentally unfair,” writing that prosecutors “would attempt to set a closed record for addressing unfiled defense motions by crediting their own untested assessments of purported evidence, denying President Trump an opportunity to confront their witnesses, and preventing the defense from obtaining discovery.”
Newsweek reached out to Smith’s office via email for further comment.
After the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling in July, which found that Trump is protected from facing criminal charges for actions he took under his official duties as president. Smith responded by filing a superseding indictment in Trump’s federal election case in late August, which focused on Trump’s actions as a candidate, not as the president, in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Smith said in court filings on Saturday that his office’s opening brief on presidential immunity will be half composed of a “detailed factual proffer,” including 30 pages of “extensive footnote citations to an exhibit appendix.”
Prosecutors also acknowledged that the briefing would include a “substantial amount of sensitive material,” and asked that a redacted version of the document be filed on the public docket at a later time.
Update 09/23/24, 6:45 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.