Special counsel opposes Trump’s bid to halt proceedings in election subversion case

(WASHINGTON) — Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has asked the court to deny former President Donald Trump’s request to halt all proceedings in the Jan. 6 case pending their appeal of District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s presidential immunity order and urged the judge to do all she can to make sure the March 4 trial date isn’t delayed.

“During the pendency of the appeal, any number of matters could arise in this case that are not involved in the appeal; the Court should not enter an order preventing it from handling them. Furthermore, the Court should maintain the March 4 trial date,” the special counsel states in a filing from the weekend.

In a separate filing, also from the weekend, Smith’s prosecutors revealed they asked virtually every senior former Trump administration intelligence official if they had knowledge of a single vote being flipped by a voting machine in the 2020 election. It’s a significant revelation as Smith’s team discloses their access to more than a dozen top intel officials — including the former president’s intelligence briefer — which gives a roadmap to evidence they likely plan to present at trial.

“To the contrary, as the defendant is aware from the discovery that has been provided, the Government asked every pertinent witness — including the former DNI, former Acting Secretary of DHS, former Acting Deputy Secretary of DHS, former CISA Director, former Acting CISA Director, former CISA Senior Cyber Counsel, former National Security Advisor (“NSA”), former Deputy NSA, former Chief of Staff to the National Security Council, former Chairman of the Election Assistance Commission (“EAC”), Presidential Intelligence Briefer, former Secretary of Defense, and former senior DOJ leadership — if they were aware of any evidence that a domestic or foreign actor flipped a single vote in a voting machine during the presidential election. The answer from every single official was no,” the filing reads.

This filing, in particular, came in response to Trump’s request to access an array of classified information that he claims is pertinent to his defense in the Jan. 6 case.

“To create the false impression that there might actually be support for his lies about voting machines, the defendant, without context, threads his filing with discussion of irrelevant network breaches around the time of the 2020 election,” the filing reads.

Trump in August pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election by enlisting a slate of so-called “fake electors,” using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations,” trying to enlist the vice president to “alter the election results,” and promoting false claims of a stolen election as the Jan. 6 riot raged — all in an effort to subvert democracy and remain in power.

The former president has denied all wrongdoing.