As anticipated, Judge Tanya Chutkan has ordered unsealed the motion filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith to make immunity determinations in the D.C. criminal case against former President Donald Trump. The 165-page motion contains certain redactions but may be viewed in its entirety below.
In the motion, prosecutors assert that Trump "resorted to crimes" following the 2020 election.
Throughout the document, Smith argues that the actions Trump took to overturn the election were in his private capacity – as a candidate – rather than in his official capacity, as a president. That argument flows from the Supreme Court’s decision in July, which granted the former president sweeping immunity for official actions but left the door open for prosecutors to pursue Trump for unofficial steps he took.
”At its core, the defendant’s scheme was a private one,” prosecutors wrote in the motion. “He extensively used private actors and his campaign infrastructure to attempt to overturn the election results and operated in a private capacity as a candidate for office.”
Jack Smith Files Motion Aimed at Kneecapping Trump's Immunity Claims
Just Ahead of Election
Given the length of the document, it will take some time to review and analyze its assertions, but the tenor of the motion is evident:
Working with a team of private co-conspirators, the defendant acted as a candidate when he pursued multiple criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted—a function in which the defendant, as President, had no official role.
In a nutshell, Smith asserts that none of the allegations contained in the Government's superseding indictment against Trump are immune from prosecution.
Trump's legal team has until October 17 to file his response to Smith's motion. In the meantime, expect there to be much hay made in the media of the Government's assertions.
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