Former President Donald Trump and special counsel Jack Smith are at odds over how to proceed in the high-profile election interference case against the former president, with both sides presenting contrasting strategies in a joint court filing that could see the legal battle stretch well into 2025.
In the filing, Trump’s legal team laid out a detailed and extended timeline for the case, indicating their intention to file numerous additional motions and challenges. The defense team’s proposed schedule would push critical proceedings into January 2025, well after the 2024 presidential election.
Smith, who has been leading the investigation into Trump’s actions to challenge the 2020 election results, did not propose a specific trial timeline in the filing. Rather, he emphasized that the decision on how to manage the case lies entirely with Chutkan.
At the same time, he expressed the prosecution’s readiness to file its opening immunity brief “promptly at any time the Court deems appropriate,” while suggesting that Chutkan handle the various motions filed by Trump’s team concurrently to keep the case moving forward expeditiously.
In a further bid to accelerate proceedings, Smith also pushed back on Trump’s proposal for a separate deadline and motions practice regarding discovery.
Under Trump’s plan, as laid out in the joint filing, the first significant legal challenge would take place in late October, when his team intends to argue in a motion that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional and that the funding used to pay the special counsel’s team is illegal.
“As a threshold matter, President Trump will move to dismiss the Special Counsel’s improper appointment and use of non-appropriated funds—issues that a Supreme Court justice describes as ’serious questions’ that ’must be answered before this prosecution may proceed,'” reads the filing.
Meese and the scholars contend that the statutes cited by Garland do not authorize the appointment of a private citizen to wield extraordinary criminal law enforcement powers under the title of special counsel; arguing further that Smith’s lack of Senate confirmation and alleged improper appointment to the role of a federal officer mean that all actions taken by him against Trump should be declared null and void.
Trump’s lawyers also suggested in the joint status report that the court should not begin addressing presidential immunity issues until December. This timing appears to be critical, as it would delay any substantial progress in the case until after the election.
Smith’s superseding indictment, which was reworked in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, claims that Trump’s statements on social media calling on Pence to refuse to count the electoral votes that established President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election were unrelated to Pence’s official duties and instead amounted to Trump’s “personal” attempt to “unlawfully retain power.”
Trump’s lawyers argue that Smith’s “improper” use of allegations relating to the former vice president in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling that extends presumptive immunity to communications between Trump and Pence are foundational to the superseding indictment and Chutkan should toss it entirely.
After the Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that Trump is entitled to some immunity, the justices sent the case back to district court, leaving it up to Chutkan to decide how to apply the ruling to the case.