Smith Seeks to Ban Trump from Blaming Others, Misinforming

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We have more information on Jack Smith’s shocking filing asking the Court to keep Donald Trump from presenting a defense blaming others, implicating DC Mayor Bowser or Joe Biden, and making false claims.

Again, who gets to decide what is false or not? Jack Smith?

Smith even wants to control phrases like “injustice department”  and doesn’t want him to be able to say the rioters [Smith calls them insurrectionists] should have known better.

According to the filing, Mr. Trump should not be allowed to make “irrelevant” claims targeting Joe Biden or blaming others for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot during his federal election interference trial.

“Through public statements, filings, and argument in hearings before the court, the defense has attempted to inject into this case partisan political attacks and irrelevant and prejudicial issues that have no place in a jury trial,” the filing states.

“Although the court can recognize these efforts for what they are and disregard them, the jury — if subjected to them — may not,” it continues. “The court should not permit the defendant to turn the courtroom into a forum in which he propagates irrelevant disinformation and should reject his attempt to inject politics into this proceeding.”

The special counsel argues that Trump has suggested: “He intends to impeach the integrity of the investigation by raising wholly false claims such as the government’s nonexistent ‘coordination with the Biden administration’ and other empty allegations recycled from the selective and vindictive prosecution motion that he based on anonymous sources in newspaper articles.”

Smith’s team also argues in the filing that Trump should be barred from using “terminology such as the ‘Injustice Department,’ ‘Biden Indictment’ or similar phrases” in front of the jury.

When did we agree that prosecutors are allowed to control the defense argument?

Smith is attempting to convict the former president of a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election with “fake electors,” using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations,” trying to enlist the vice president to “alter the election results,” and promoting false claims of a stolen election as the Jan. 6 riot raged — all in an effort to subvert democracy and remain in power.

The former president has denied all wrongdoing and denounced the charges as “a persecution of a political opponent.”

Smith said Trump is spreading a fact-free public disinformation campaign to discredit the indictment. He wants that excluded. He wants to decide what the facts are and deprive Donald Trump of a defense.

Smith also wants Trump banned from talking about foreign influence.

“To begin with, the defendant has not pointed to a single piece of evidence indicating that foreign influence — rather than his own lies – motivated rioters on January 6,” Smith’s team says. “And in any event, whether others- be they civilians or foreign actors – said untrue things on the internet, it does not exonerate the defendant for the lies he told to his followers or the criminal steps he took to illegally retain power.

He wants the former president banned from blaming DC Mayor Muriel Bowser for failing to protect the Capitol.

“A bank robber cannot defend himself by blaming the bank’s security guard for failing to stop him,” the filing reads. “A fraud defendant cannot claim to the jury that his victims should have known better than to fall for his scheme. And the defendant cannot argue that law enforcement should have prevented the violence he caused and obstruction he intended.”

Trump responded to the filing in a statement Wednesday, claiming the prosecution is ignoring Judge Chutkan’s instructions to stay the election subversion case.

“[I]t 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,” Trump wrote in a statement.

Trump also accused Smith of being “obsessed with attacking President Trump and interfering with the 2024 Presidential Election” and calling him Biden’s “errand boy.”


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