President Trump’s legal team is back before Obama appointed Judge Chutkan and they are pleading not guilty to the new superseding indictment by Jack Smith in the phony J6 case.
ABC News is following the case pretty close and here’s what we know so far.
- Chutkan won’t finalize the schedule for hearings today. However she did say that she will issue a schedule for the case as soon as possible afterwards.
- Prosecutors say want to file their brief defending their indictment near the end of September.
- Trump attorney John Lauro argued that Judge Chutkan should “address a number of pretrial and indictment-related questions — especially related to Trump’s communications with then-VP Mike Pence — before letting prosecutors file a brief defending the indictment.” He argued it would be enormously prejudicial to President Trump to allow the defense brief before allowing them to “address important evidentiary issues” related to the Supreme Court ruling. Chutkan suggested it could all be done at the same time.
Then there was this exchange:
Lauro then said there is a “major problem” here because, according to Lauro, the Supreme Court already decided that the information in indictment about communication between Trump and Pence is related to an official act.
Chutkan then insisted: “No, I would disagree with you Mr. Lauro, they have not decided that. They have sent that back to me for me to figure that out.”
- Jack Smith’s henchmen say they want to move “quickly” and that Chutkan should consider that when creating the schedule. Lauro asked to speak briefly and the judge essentially sneered her nose at him:
Defense attorney John Lauro then said he wanted to speak briefly. Chutkan said it had to be brief, saying, “I don’t need any more rhetoric on how serious and grave this is.”
“It’s not rhetoric, it’s called legal argument,” Lauro shot back.
Lauro again insisted that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unlawful. “We have an illegitimate prosecutor. We have an illegitimate indictment,” he said.
That’s the latest at this point. You can just feel the contempt the judge has for Trump’s team in court. I guarantee you she’s going to try and schedule a trial before the election, and Trump’s attorneys will do everything they can to postpone it, as well they should. The entire case is a farce to begin with and is only happening because Joe Biden ordered his DOJ to go after his then-opponent.