Smith slams Trump’s request for contempt charge against him as ‘recycled allegations’

Special counsel Jack Smith denounced former President Trump’s request for contempt charges against him on Friday, saying the effort is just bringing up “recycled allegations.”

Trump’s attorneys filed a contempt claim Thursday due to a dispute over how Judge Tanya Chutkan has paused activity in the case. The legal team claimed that due to a stay in the case, prosecutors should have halted all activity, including new filings.

“The defendant claims that the Government intentionally violated the Court’s stay order, and promoted a political agenda, by fulfilling its continuing discovery obligations and voluntarily complying with otherwise suspended deadlines. That is false,” federal prosecutors wrote in the Friday court filing.

“The Government has not violated — and never intentionally would violate — an order of the Court, and the defendant’s recycled allegations of partisanship and prosecutorial misconduct remain baseless,” they continued.

Chutkan paused Trump’s criminal election interference case last month while a higher court takes up an appeal to a claim that he should be immune from charges.

In the response Friday, prosecutors argued that because Trump is not required to respond to any of the new motions filed or case activity, that their actions do not violate a pause.

“Nothing here requires any action by the defendant, and he fails to explain how the mere receipt of discovery materials that he is not obligated to review, or the early filing of Government pleadings to which he does not yet need to respond, possibly burdens him,” prosecutors said.

The filing claims the prosecution “did what it said it would do,” filing motions and discovery evidence in order to keep a potential trial on track if Trump’s appeal fails. The case is scheduled to go to trial March 4.