Donald Trump’s attorneys are accusing Jack Smith’s heart of being two sizes too small this holiday season, complaining in a new filing that the special counsel is attempting to steal their Christmas, Grinch-style.
The Wednesday filing urges the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to reject Smith’s request for it to expedite its review of whether Trump has executive immunity from prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. Rubber-stamping Smith’s proposed schedule for the appeals process, Trump’s team wrote, “would make President Trump’s opening brief due the day after Christmas.”
“This proposed schedule would require attorneys and support staff to work round-the-clock through the holidays, inevitably disrupting family and travel plans,” they complained. Then, citing the original Dr. Seuss book: “It is as if the Special Counsel ‘growled, with his Grinch fingers drumming, “I must find some way to keep Christmas from coming… But how?”’”
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly pushed to have the trial, which is currently set to begin in March 2024, delayed until after the election. On Wednesday, they begged the court to take its time as it weighs the appeal. “The manifest public interest lies in the court’s careful and deliberate consideration of these momentous issues with the utmost care and diligence,” they said.
Trump and his counsel have also railed against the pace of proceedings given what they have characterized as “nearly 13 million pages of discovery and a litany of important and unresolved legal issues” cluttering the case. They have insisted that the prosecution is politically motivated, and reiterated that argument in the new filing.
“The prosecution has one goal in this case: To unlawfully attempt to try, convict, and sentence President Trump before an election in which he is likely to defeat President Biden,” they argued. “This represents a blatant attempt to interfere with the 2024 presidential election and to disenfranchise the tens of millions of voters who support President Trump’s candidacy.”
Prosecutors offered a correction to the Trump team in their own filing Wednesday, pointing out that their opening brief would actually be due two days before Christmas, not one day after. “In any event, the public’s need for a speedy resolution of these important legal issues take precedence over personal scheduling issues,” Smith’s office added.
The response did not address the Grinch issue. A spokesperson for Smith’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Earlier on Wednesday, the federal judge overseeing the election case agreed to put it on ice until the immunity appeal plays out, handing the former president a rare victory in proceedings. Judge Tanya Chutkan’s Dec. 1 ruling that Trump does not have presidential immunity from the election subversions crimes with which he’s charged is the opinion under review by the appeals court. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.
In a separate request, Smith’s office on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the immunity question itself as swiftly as possible, bypassing the appeals court altogether. The high court said the same day that it would decide quickly whether to hear arguments in the case or not, ordering Trump’s attorneys to respond by next Wednesday.
