The federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's 2020 election interference case on Tuesday approved a request by special counsel Jack Smith to file a “supercharged” brief responding to the Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision.
Smith asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan for permission to submit a “comprehensive” opening statement outlining the government's intention to prosecute Trump in light of the Supreme Court's July 1 ruling granting the 45th president absolute immunity for certain executive actions.
The special counsel's request filed Saturday noted that the prosecutors' defense brief, which they plan to submit to Chutkan on Thursday, will be “four times” the size of the court's 45-page limit and will contain a “substantial amount of evidence,” including potential new evidence in the case.
“The length and breadth of the government's proposed briefs reflect that these decisions are particularly 'challenging' and fact-bound,” Judge Chutkan wrote. Her ruling reads:He noted that prosecutors are seeking to apply the Supreme Court's immunity ruling to the case.
Trump's lawyers opposed the request, calling Smith's filing a “monstrosity” and arguing that the government is “attempting to present an untested and biased view to the Supreme Court and the American people as if it were definitive” just weeks before Election Day.
Smith filed the indictment against Trump last month in protest of the Supreme Court's ruling granting presidential immunity.
Trump, 78, remains charged with the same four counts unsealed last August for attempting to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden, but Smith's legal team has reframed some of its arguments to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that found former presidents enjoy “absolute” immunity from prosecution for certain official acts.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has asked for the case to be dismissed in its entirety.
The case won't go to trial until Election Day, November 5.
