Trump Files Last-Minute Request to Delay More Jack Smith Docs

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday filed a last-minute request for the court to continue the stay of its order concerning further information being released by special counsel Jack Smith in connection with the federal Jan. 6 Capitol protest case, with Trump demanding that the matter be delayed until Nov. 14, nine days after the election.

In the documentation, filed by Trump's attorneys in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the order is being sought to allow for the "concurrent filing of the parties' respective immunity" documentation.

The move comes after the court on Oct. 2 overruled Trump's objections about Smith's redacted immunity brief, ordering it to be released immediately.

In it, Smith's team argued that Trump is not entitled to immunity from prosecution, following a Supreme Court opinion conferring broad immunity to former presidents, and that said he "resorted to crimes" in his bid to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election.

Trump's lawyers said in Thursday's demand that the Oct. 2 release led to intense press coverage.

Further, they said that Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's opponent in the presidential race, used the brief in her political advertisements, even though the "special counsel serves" Harris' administration with President Joe Biden.

"Thus, without any semblance of due process — including President Trump's right to cross-examine witnesses and call his own witnesses in a court proceeding — the public has been poisoned by a one-sided prosecutorial narrative that is being used for political purposes by the incumbent administration," the document reads.

Meanwhile, the court determined on Oct. 10 that a redacted special counsel appendix should also be released, but stayed that for seven days, allowing Trump to evaluate "further litigation options," his paperwork Thursday reads.

Smith's team on Wednesday said in a filing that Trump bears responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, NBC News reported.

The filing, made in response to Trump's attempt to dismiss the case, said it is "incorrect" for the former president's team to assert that a superseding indictment, filed in August in response to the Supreme Court's immunity ruling, doesn't show that he was responsible for the Jan. 6 events.

The deadline for the redacted versions of the special counsel's appendix falls on Thursday, but his filing in court asks that the matter be delayed so it and Trump's immunity appendix can be released at the same time.

"This stay will not eliminate the harms President Trump identified in his prior opposition filings, [but] certain harms will be mitigated," his team argued in Thursday's demands to the court.

"For example, if the Court immediately releases the Special Counsel's cherry-picked documents, potential jurors will be left with a skewed, one-sided, and inaccurate picture of this case," the Trump plea states. "Those same potential jurors may not see President Trump's later responsive filing, and even if some do, first impressions are prone to remain.”

If the appendices are released concurrently, "at least some press outlets" will report on both sides of the case, "reducing (although, again, not eliminating) the potential for irreversible prejudice," Trump's team argues.

But if the appendices are not released at the same time, that will "create a continuing appearance of election interference," the document claims.

"A stay would promote public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings and a court's duty to remain apolitical," Trump's case argues. "Continuing the stay will not cause the Special Counsel any cognizable prejudice. The information it wishes to release publicly will still be released publicly…the relief sought herein will not cause any meaningful harm to the Special Counsel, but will mitigate a great deal of harm to President Trump and the public."

Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Wednesday rejected Trump's demand for prosecutors to turn over evidence, except in a few instances, that he said would support his case and show his state of mind on Jan. 6, CBS News reported.