Former President Donald Trump on Thursday filed a motion arguing that special counsel Jack Smith should be held in contempt for continuing to submit court filings in the D.C. election subversion case while proceedings are paused. Smith last week asked U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan to bar Trump from introducing “irrelevant disinformation” into the case in a filing Trump claimed was “illegal.”
"The stay order is clear, straightforward, and unambiguous," Trump attorney John Lauro wrote in the filing. "All substantive proceedings in this court are halted. Despite this clarity, the prosecutors began violating the stay almost immediately." The filing asked Chutkan to release an order showing why prosecutors should not be held in contempt or ordered to withdraw their filing and be barred from making future filings.
MSNBC legal analyst Katie Phang noted that Trump also used the filing to “repeat his story that he ‘called only for peaceful and patriotic protest and assembly’” ahead of the Jan. 6 attack. “Sure, Jan,” she wrote. “The proceedings are stayed” anyway, pointed out national security attorney Bradley Moss. “Trump doesn't have to do anything in response to the filings. Doesn't stop DOJ from still producing discovery and filing things. If the case is thrown out by the Supreme Court, the filings will become irrelevant.”
