Former President Donald Trump’s legal team alleged Thursday that federal prosecutors have deliberately violated a stay order in his Washington D.C. case to thwart his presidential bid.
In the defense’s clearest attack yet, they alleged special counsel Jack Smith and his team were trying to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.
“Unstated, but obvious, is the prosecutors’ desperate effort to harass President Trump and prevent his likely victory in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump’s defense attorneys wrote in the latest court filing. “A significant part of this strategy, which the prosecutors have employed from the outset, is to use this case as a platform to advance the Biden Campaign’s dishonest political talking points, including, for example, echoing the false and defamatory claims that President Trump spreads ‘disinformation.'”
The defense motion comes in response to request last month from Smith’s team, which filed a 20-page motion seeking to block Trump from bringing politics into the jury room.
Trump’s defense team also asked the judge to consider civil contempt actions against the prosecutors and order them to pay for part of Trump’s defense.
“Namely, the prosecutors should reimburse President Trump for all reasonable attorneys; fees and other expenses that he has incurred responding to the prosecutor’s improper productions and filings,” they wrote.
Smith’s team of federal prosecutors charged Trump with four federal counts related to contesting the 2020 election and the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. The charges include conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction, and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted, according to the indictment. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
