Jack Smith Gives Donald Trump a Clue About His Witnesses

A new legal filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith has sparked new questions about who knew what regarding Donald Trump's mindset and intentions surrounding January 6, 2021.

The motion in limine, referring to a pretrial motion requesting certain evidence to be deemed inadmissible and not referred to or offered throughout a trial, blasts Trump and his defense team and accuses them of "attempting to inject into this case partisan political attacks and irrelevant and prejudicial issues that have no place in a jury trial."

It also requests the court to not permit Trump to use the courtroom as a forum to "propagate irrelevant disinformation" during the trial, saying the defense "has repeatedly used rhetoric that may be acceptable on the campaign trail but not in a trial."

The former president and GOP frontrunner is facing a federal case brought by Smith alleging he worked to overturn the results of the election, won by President Joe Biden.

Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, has been charged with conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing a congressional proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's legal team via email for comment.

MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin said the motion is seeking to exclude specific evidence about January 6, such as cross-examination potentially causing unnamed government witnesses to breach attorney-client privilege under the Constitution's Speech and Debate clause.

It could allude to previously unknown testimony potentially damaging to the former president, she said.

"Put another way, the government is making clear they have testimony from Trump lawyers and/or members of Congress," Rubin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Those who testified under that clause may include former Vice President Mike Pence and current Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, according to reporting by The Guardian's Hugo Lowell.

Trump lashed out at Smith, in addition to the Department of Justice, President Biden and multiple U.S. intelligence agencies, in multiple Truth Social posts on Christmas Day. The ex-president called Smith "deranged" and referred to the collective as "Biden's misfits and thugs," written in block-capital letters.

"I don't think [the special counsel's office] 'turned' any of [Trump's] lawyers," attorney Bradley Moss told Newsweek via email. "This is more likely referring to testimony obtained after overcoming attorney-client privilege by way of the crime-fraud exception."

Former federal prosecutor Michael McAuliffe told Newsweek via email that the newest filing is the government's anticipation that Trump's legal team "will try to throw every conceivable political issue and argument in the air," in front of a jury in hope that something will cloud its view.

"The issue of pre-clearing the use of otherwise privileged information doesn't necessarily indicate the government has any unique knowledge of such privileged information, but it does indicate that the government believes the defense will try to use such information on cross-examination of a witness," McAuliffe said.

He added: "For a witness to be cross-examined on privileged information, the witness presumably needs some connection to the privileged information––i.e., a lawyer."