A Defiant Jack Smith, Courting Contempt, Is Pushing the Pace Even as Proceedings Are Suspended

Special Counsel Jack Smith has no intention of slowing his breakneck pace in his January 6 case, notwithstanding President Trump’s efforts to hold the proceedings at a halt. Mr. Smith’s doubling down comes in the form of a Friday evening filing. He opposes Mr. Trump’s position that the special counsel ought to be held in contempt for ignoring Judge Tanya Chutkan’s suspension of the case. It is paused pending appellate review of the scope of Mr. Trump’s immunities.Mr. Trump paints a picture of a special counsel barreling through judicially erected stop signs, functioning as an “arm of the Biden campaign” and using legal means for political ends. Mr. Smith, though, is giving no quarter — he accuses the 45th president of trotting out “recycled allegations of partisanship” and “baseless” calumnies.Whether Mr. Smith is courting contempt could turn on whether Judge Chutkan’s suspension of the case is an absolute ban on action or merely a reprieve from obligation. The judge’s command “automatically stays any further proceedings that would move this case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation.” The trial date is set — for now — for March 4. The prosecutor does “not understand that order to prohibit either party from voluntarily complying” with scheduled deadlines. Mr. Trump, though, takes the position that it is “clear, straightforward, and unambiguous. All substantive proceedings in this Court are halted.” He decries Mr. Smith’s “intention to continue this partisan-driven misconduct indefinitely, effectively converting this Court’s docket into an arm of the Biden Campaign.”Mr. Smith responds that his relentless filings “impose no requirements on” Mr. Trump, who is “not obliged to respond” while the case is suspended. The government, though, wants to do its part to “promote the prompt resumption of the pretrial schedule if and when the mandate returns.”The special counsel takes the position that Mr. Tump’s umbrage is unmoored from any duty to respond. The 45th president, he writes, “fails to explain how the mere receipt of discovery materials that he is not obligated to review, or the early filing of Government pleadings to which he does not yet need to respond, possibly burdens him.” The special counsel calls Mr. Trump’s allegations that he is coordinating with President Biden, “baseless.” He instead cites a “substantial public interest in the fair and prompt resolution of this case” as the motivation for his meeting of non-binding deadlines. That means that on February 19, Mr. Smith will disclose his witness list to Mr. Trump, “without any expectation of reciprocation”

A Defiant Jack Smith, Courting Contempt, Is Pushing the Pace Even as Proceedings Are Suspended

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