The judge overseeing Donald Trump‘s federal election obstruction case has shut down a “weird” request from the former president’s lawyers, a legal expert has said.
On her Civil Discourse blog, Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor, commented on a court hearing that took place in Washington, D.C., on Thursday between Judge Tanya Chutkan, Trump’s legal team, and the office of special counsel Jack Smith.
The hearing was part of ongoing discussions to determine how the case—in which Trump has pleaded not guilty to four charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election—should proceed in the wake of the Supreme Court‘s July ruling, which said Trump had some presidential immunity from prosecution for official acts performed while in office.
The decision threatens to upend Smith’s case, which concerns the events that led up to the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. The special counsel has filed a new superseding indictment to fall in line with the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
During the hearing, Thomas Windom, a prosecutor working on Smith’s team, said the government was preparing to file a detailed legal brief defending the new indictment, but John Lauro, Trump’s lawyer, objected to the filing—which Vance called “weird,” suggesting it was a delay tactic that the judge “saw through.”
Former President Donald Trump in New York on September 5. A legal expert has criticized Trump’s lawyer for making a “weird” request during a hearing in his federal election interference case.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Lauro objected to the motion being filled before the defense team has had a chance to seek the indictment’s dismissal. He also objected to the filing of the motion because of its proximity to the 2024 election. In response, Chutkan said the timing of the election was “not relevant” to how the case should proceed.
“Here’s the oddity: Trump’s lawyers, who said they want to know more about the government’s case before they file their motion challenging it, objected to the government filing a brief telling them all about the government’s case,” Vance wrote in her blog.
She continued: “The government in essence was offering to give Trump even more discovery than the rules require them to, because they need to lay out their evidence so the Judge can evaluate the immunity issue.
“But Trump’s lawyers said they didn’t want that. Weird.”
Vance said it “doesn’t make sense” for Trump’s lawyers to object to the government providing information they were seeking unless their goal is to “put everything off for as long as possible, certainly until after the election.”
At the hearing, Chutkan ordered Smith’s team to file its opening brief by September 26 and told Trump’s lawyers to respond by October 17.
“So now, the government has a few weeks to write its brief and then Judge Chutkan can get back to work. She clearly was ready to do that,” Vance wrote.
Newsweek has contacted Lauro for comment via email.
If the election obstruction trial takes place, it would begin next year at the earliest. Trump, who is running in November’s presidential election, could order the Department of Justice to drop the federal investigation if he wins and enters office in January 2025.
During Thursday’s hearing, Lauro accused the proceedings of being “inherently unfair” because of the “sensitive time that we’re in.”
Chutkan responded, “This court is not concerned with the electoral schedule.”
The superseding indictment that Smith recently filed contains the same four federal charges against Trump, but it excludes allegations that the former president pressured the Department of Justice in November 2020 and January 2021 to support his false claims that the results of the 2020 election were rigged because of widespread voter fraud.
