Trump Lawyers Cling To Supreme Court Immunity Ruling In Jan. 6 Case

In a filinglate Thursday night, lawyers for former President Donald Trump breathed new life into the election subversion case linked to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, arguing that Trump’s alleged pressure campaign on former Vice President Mike Pence would qualify as official conduct and is protected by “absolute” immunity. They also alleged that special counsel Jack Smith has improperly withheld exculpatory evidence ahead of trial.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had ordered Trump’s lawyers — Todd Blanche, John Lauro and Emil Bove — to follow up by Sept. 19 with more arguments for two motions that the defense initially filed in November 2023. Chutkan had set a deadline of 5 p.m. for the filings, but the former president’s lawyers claimed they “did not realize” that and filed it just before midnight. One was a motion to compel discovery from Smith, arguing prosecutors were engaged in “efforts to suppress and withhold” potentially exculpatory evidence from Trump that would support the thrust of his defense at trial — namely, the Republican’s claim that he genuinely believed the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, was “stolen.”

The other motion, which was partially redacted, sought an order setting the scope of the prosecution and urged that the defense team’s vast discovery requests should be honored not just by Smith’s office but by any component or division of the Justice Department that helped investigate the 2020 election or Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Trump’s lawyers said agencies such as the FBI, the Secret Service, the CIA, the Defense Department and others should be compelled to turn over discovery records.

Both of the November motions were entered before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling