By The Opinion
25 Oct 2024, 00:58 AM EDT
The legal team of donald trump is asking a federal court to dismiss the 2020 election interference case that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, saying the appointment of special prosecutor Jack Smith is unconstitutional, in a court filing made Thursday, 12 days before the presidential election, according to CNN.
“Everything Smith did since the appointment of Attorney General (Merrick) Garland, as President Trump continued his primary campaign against President Biden and then Vice President Harris, was illegal and unconstitutional,” Trump’s lawyers argued.
The defense peppered Thursday’s presentation with political attacks on President Joe Bidenwith a handful of mentions of the election, as well as Biden’s comment this week that Trump needs to be “locked up… politically.”
Trump’s team wrote that Garland was “following President Biden’s inappropriate insistence on attacking President Trump, as reported at the time in 2022, and which President Biden recently repeated through his inappropriate instruction to ‘lock him up’ while Smith is pursuing the case illegally as the presidential election quickly approaches.”
“I know this sounds strange; It seems like if I had said this five years ago, they would have locked me up. “We have to lock him up.” Biden said in New Hampshire on Tuesday, and added: “Lock him up politically. Leave it outside. That’s what we have to do.”
However, Trump’s court filing does not mention the “politically” warning nor any other context.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case against Trump in Washington, D.C., has repeatedly said that politics plays no role in the decisions you makeand Department of Justice regulations governing the special counsel’s office They provide several mechanisms for Smith to make decisions independently of the attorney general.
Garland and Biden have also maintained that They do not coordinate in the appointment of special prosecutorsand a federal grand jury in session in DC District Court approved the indictment against Trump.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump said he would fire Smith if elected.
In addition to insisting on the political orientation of the criminal case against Trump, the presentation also seeks that courts superior to Chutkan consider the legality of Smith’s prosecutions.
Trump’s team is using some of the same arguments that were successful in their attempt to overturn the Florida classified documents case earlier this year, although the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits above Chutkan , has already determined that special prosecutors’ offices are constitutional.
Trump’s appearance before Chutkan on Thursday is one of several arguments he is making to try to dismiss his conspiracy and obstruction charges related to their actions during the 2020 election through January 6, 2021.
Keep reading:
• Trump anticipates the firing of prosecutor Jack Smith if he wins the elections
• Judge releases more evidence against Donald Trump in January 6 case
• Prosecutor Jack Smith charges Trump with new evidence in January 6 case