The heated legal proceedings surrounding the fallout from the 2016 Presidential Election have taken yet another surprising turn- the Special Counsel Jack Smith’s legal team is now seeking to bar Donald Trump from repeatedly using the term ‘WITCH HUNT’ during the election interference case reported Above the Law.
The effort to limit Trump’s rhetoric in court comes as Trump’s lawyers argue that filing documents in the case should be deemed illegal, due to a stay of deadlines pending the DC Circuit’s decision on a dismissive motion brought forth by Trump’s defense, which revolves around ‘presidential immunity’.
Smith’s team, along with deputies Molly Gaston and Thomas Windom, counter-argued that the defense are trying to distract from the core purpose of the trial by injecting political attacks and irrelevant issues into the case. They are pushing for a courtroom environment free from these diversions.
The primary actions of Trump’s team that drew the Special Counsel’s ire are motions that Trump’s legal team has filed, arguing selective and vindictive prosecution – implicating President Biden as directly driving this alleged bias. The prosecutors have asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to reject these motions and prohibit the use of such politically charged language in court.
The list of restrictions that Smith and his team requested are in respect of arguments seeking to impeach the investigators for bad conduct, legal issues properly reserved for the Court, attempts to blame law enforcement failures, as well as arguments that are seen to be speculative and elicit irrelevant protected information.
While this legal tug-of-war continues, the Special Counsel will have to file their response by January 2.
For live updates and a detailed look into the court documents, have a look at the District Docket via Court Listener and the Circuit Docket via Court Listener.