Judge Chutkan Gives Jack Smith New Rules in Trump Trial

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has enacted new requirements for special counsel Jack Smith if federal prosecutors in Donald Trump's election subversion case want to file future motions.

The order, which was signed by Chutkan Thursday, comes after Trump requested that Smith be held in contempt of court for allegedly violating a past order that halted all activity related to the federal case. Last month, Chutkan issued a temporary pause on proceedings while a federal appeals court decides whether the former president is covered by presidential immunity from the charges against him.

Trump has argued that he is innocent of any wrongdoing because his actions detailed in Smith's indictment fell within his powers as president. Trump has been accused of trying to hold on to power and subvert the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden, culminating in the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. He has pleaded not guilty to the four felony counts in the indictment.

In Thursday's order, Chutkan partially denied Trump's requests. She decided that Smith should not be held in contempt or ordered to compensate the former president for any sustained damages. The judge did, however, enact a new rule for Smith, which requires the special counsel to ask the court before filing "any substantive pretrial motions."

Chutkan dismissed a good amount of Trump's arguments, however. She said that the temporary stay did not "clearly and unambiguously" prohibit prosecutors from filing motions related to the case. Rather, the pause was intended to relieve Trump, the defendant, from the "burdens of litigation" pending the appeals court's decision.

The judge did side with the former president in his complaint about a filing by Smith's team in late December, which asked the court to limit what Trump is allowed to say during his testimony. Chutkan agreed that the filing places a burden on Trump since his defense counsel "will need to conduct a preliminary review of each substantive motion the Government files in order to know whether they need to take further action."

"Accordingly, the court will adopt Defendant's recommendation that the parties be forbidden from filing any further substantive pretrial motions without first seeking leave from the court," read Chutkan's order.

Newsweek contacted Smith's press office, which declined to comment for this story.

Trump, who is the clear front-runner in the GOP presidential nomination race, has maintained that he is innocent of the charges brought against him by Smith in this case and Smith's other federal case against him. The latter involves the former president's handling of classified documents taken from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

In a post to Truth Social on Thursday, Trump double-downed on his argument for presidential immunity, writing that a president "must have full immunity, without which it would be impossible for him/her to properly function."

"Even events that 'cross the line' must fall under total immunity, or it will be years of trauma trying to determine good from bad," he continued. "There must be certainty."

A federal appeals court's three-judge panel heard Trump's arguments for immunity earlier this month and is expected to rule on the matter in the coming days.