OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The federal judge presiding over Jack Smith’s ‘election interference’ case against former President Donald Trump ruled against the special counsel earlier this week in a blow to the prosecution.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan placed partial restrictions on sSmith’s actions in the alleged election interference case after Trump’s legal team filed a motion asking her to hold Smith in contempt for continuing to submit documents despite the judge issuing a stay order in December.
Trump has appealed to the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals to determine if he’s covered by presidential immunity regarding the charges leveled against him by Smith.
Despite Chutkan’s Dec. 13 order that stayed proceedings at the federal court level, Trump’s legal team said in its filing that Smith’s office served him with 4,000 pages of “additional discovery” on Dec. 17, including what the prosecutors’ production letter described as “several hundred video and audio recordings.”
Trump’s legal team has asked for the withdrawal of all of Smith’s discovery requests and requested that prosecutors be obligated to seek court permission before submitting any further filings “to ensure that any further attempts to violate the Stay Order will be summarily denied.”
Chutkan, in her ruling, agreed with Trump’s team.
“The court agrees … diligent defense counsel will need to conduct a preliminary review of each substantive motion the Government files in order to know whether they need to take further action. While that is not a major burden, it is a cognizable one,” she wrote.
“Accordingly, the court will adopt Defendant’s recommendation that the parties be forbidden from filing any further substantive pretrial motions without first seeking leave from the court,” she wrote.
“Any such motion for leave to file shall state whether the proposed motion is ancillary to the pending appeal and so requires a timely response or other action before the mandate is returned,” she added.
SMACKDOWN FOR JACK SMITH? In a loss for the abusers in the Biden DOJ/Smith operation, anti-Trump Judge Chutkan agrees with Trump and requires Smith get court permission before making any more court filings in a case that is already stayed:
“Accordingly, the court will adopt… https://t.co/kgF3ffmZ8G
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) January 18, 2024
However, Chutkan, an Obama appointee, refused to hold Smith and his prosecutors in contempt because she said she “did not clearly and unambiguously prohibit the Government actions to which Defendant objects.”
Meanwhile, a report earlier this week noted that a judge in Georgia previously removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from a case involving the 2020 election over political bias.
It came as Willis is facing increasing scrutiny after a court filing earlier this month revealed she is romantically involved with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired to help with her RICO case against Trump.
According to NBC News, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney barred Willis from pursuing a case against Georgia state Sen. Burt Jones, who was a candidate for lieutenant governor at the time. This action came after Willis organized a fundraiser for Democratic candidate Charlie Bailey during his runoff race. McBurney’s ruling cited that Willis’ participation in the fundraiser was deemed “harmful” to the investigation into Jones, who was allegedly linked with other state Republicans in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results using an alternate slate of electors.
McBurney, however, said Willis’ involvement would prompt “entirely reasonable concerns of politically motivated persecution,” according to the outlet.
“Any decision the district attorney makes about Senator Jones in connection with the grand jury investigation is necessarily infected by it,” McBurney ruled, the outlet noted further.
McBurney said that the DA’s donation to a Democrat campaign was not in and of itself disqualifying but noted the donation “added to the weight of the conflict created by the more extensive, direct, public and job-related campaign work the district attorney performed on behalf of candidate Bailey.”
