Special counsel Jack Smith is forcefully opposing former President Donald Trump’s sweeping claim of presidential immunity in the criminal case over his handling of classified documents, urging the judge to cut off Trump’s ability to appeal the issue in a way that would delay his trial.
The “immunity claim here is so wholly without merit that it is difficult to understand it except as part of a strategic effort for delay,” Smith’s office wrote in one of a host of legal filings Thursday afternoon.
Trump is charged with taking classified national defense documents from the White House after he left office and resisting the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials. He has pleaded not guilty.
The indictment against Trump in Florida, prosecutors said, “does not charge Trump for any acts that he undertook as President, let alone an official presidential act.”
Smith’s office asked Judge Aileen Cannon to certify Trump’s new immunity claim as “frivolous,” which would foreclose the former president’s avenue for an immediate appeal that would delay the trial. An immunity claim is one of the few issues that, if appealed, could derail a trial.