Special Counsel Jack Smith, fresh off his loss at the Supreme Court where justices refused to expedite a ruling on the immunity question, is now asking the Washington D.C. trial court to muzzle former President Donald Trump and prevent him from spreading “disinformation” and injecting politics into the case. The case concerns what Smith sees as attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.

Smith wants the former president to stop talking so much:

Special counsel Jack Smith asked a Washington, DC, federal judge Wednesday to rule out former President Donald Trump’s attempts “to inject politics” into his Jan. 6 case, arguing in a court filing it will “ensure that the jury remains focused on its fact-finding duty and applies the law as instructed by the Court.”

Smith said the 45th president has made “unsupported and politicized claims of selective and vindictive prosecution” and “investigative misconduct,” with Trump referring to his charges for trying to overturn the 2020 election result as one of several “Biden Indictments” by “his Injustice Department.” 

The 20-page motion also argues that Trump shouldn’t be allowed to complain that the trial would interfere with his presidential campaign and that any arguments of this type should be forbidden.

“In addition to being wrong, these allegations are irrelevant to the jury’s determination of the defendant’s guilt or innocence,” Smith wrote, “would be prejudicial if presented to the jury, and must be excluded.”

Jack Smith does not want Trump to point out to the jury that a political and selective prosecution is political and selective pic.twitter.com/oVHCtYiMMg

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) December 27, 2023

Smith had been gunning for a March 4 trial date -- one day before the Super Tuesday primaries, when approximately one-third of all delegates to the presidential nominating conventions will be won -- but the SCOTUS refusal to rush the immunity question puts that into doubt. 

Trump issued a statement after the ruling:

Crooked Joe Biden’s errand boy Deranged Jack Smith is so obsessed with attacking President Trump and interfering with the 2024 Presidential Election, and is so sad that the Supreme Court just unanimously rejected his desperate attempt to rush this Witch Hunt, that he is ignoring the law and clear instructions from District Court Judge Chutkan, who unequivocally stated that this ‘case’ is stayed and there should be no litigation. Period.

RedState’s Shipwreckedcrew warns, however, that this is a fairly routine motion and we needn’t get too worked up about it:

I'll be doing a story on my Subway Stacker page a little later. Don't invest too much energy into what others are writing about this filing by Smith if those others don't have a background in this area of the practice of law. This is one of those things that experienced trial…

— Shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) December 27, 2023

The second tweet continues:

This is one of those things that experienced trial attorneys do all the time, but those without the background might think -- wrongly -- is earth-shattering.

We can be sure to see much more legal wheeling and dealing as we head into 2024 and the relentless lawfare pursuit of Trump marches on.