(Photo
by
David
Becker/Getty
Images)
Yesterday,
Donald
Trump’s
lawyers
once
again
lost
their
ever-loving
minds
on
the
public
docket.
It’s
kind
of
their
signature
move,
but
this
time
the
occasion
was
a
motion
by
the
special
counsel
to
exceed
the
page
limit
in
its
Brief
on
Presidential
Immunity.
The
horror!
When
the
election
interference
case
finally
returned
to
Judge
Tanya
Chutkan
last
month,
the
parties
had
competing
proposals
on
how
to
deal
with
the
Supreme
Court’s
fakakta
immunity
ruling.
Trump’s
plan
was
to
do
essentially
nothing
for
the
rest
of
2024
and
hope
he
wins
in
November.
The
government
countered
with
an
aggressive
schedule
and
promised
that
it
was
prepared
to
file
a
brief
defending
its
superseding
indictment
within
three
weeks.
The
court
declined
Trump’s
generous
offer
to
kick
the
can
down
the
road
for
several
more
months
and
ordered
the
prosecution
to
file
its
brief
by
September
26.
On
Friday,
the
government
acquiesced
to
an
extension
after
Trump’s
lawyers
blew
a
deadline.
But
on
Monday,
the
defendant
failed
to
extend
the
same
courtesy
when
the
special
counsel
petitioned
to
file
180
pages
to
aid
the
court
in
the
intensive,
fact-bound
inquiry
demanded
by
the
Supreme
Court’s
six
conservatives.
Trump’s
lawyers
requested
until
the
24th
to
respond,
and
the
court
told
them
to
get
their
homework
in
by
the
23rd.
But
instead
of
explaining
why
the
special
counsel
should
have
to
stick
to
45
pages,
as
per
the
local
rule,
they
instead
filed
a
motion
relitigating
their
already-rejected
claim
that
the
prosecutor
shouldn’t
be
able
to
file
the
document
at
all.
“The
proposed
approach
is
fundamentally
unfair,
as
the
Office
would
attempt
to
set
a
closed
record
for
addressing
unfiled
defense
motions
by
crediting
their
own
untested
assessments
of
purported
evidence,
denying
President
Trump
an
opportunity
to
confront
their
witnesses,
and
preventing
the
defense
from
obtaining
discovery,”
Trump’s
lawyers
whined.
“The
hypocrisy
of
this
proposed
approach
is
demonstrated
by
the
Office’s
earlier
arguments—in
this
case
and
in
Florida—that
using
discovery
materials
in
public
filings
could
taint
the
jury
pool
and
bias
potential
witnesses.”
That
last
bit
is
particularly
disingenuous,
since
the
special
counsel
requested
to
file
the
document
under
seal,
with
a
redacted
version
to
appear
on
the
public
docket
later.
But
Trump’s
howler
monkeys
were
just
getting
started.
“The
‘opening
immunity
brief,’
as
described
in
the
Motion,
would
be
an
improper
Special
Counsel
report
masked
as
a
superfluous
filing
seeking
advisory
opinions
in
a
criminal
case,”
they
fulminated.
“The
document
would
violate
the
Presidential
immunity
doctrine,
taint
the
integrity
of
these
proceedings,
increase
the
First
Amendment
harms
resulting
from
the
Gag
Order,
and
violate
the
Justice
Manual.”
The
scare
quotes
are
a
nice
touch.
Here
on
Planet
Earth,
Judge
Chutkan
herself
called
it
an
“Opening
Brief
on
Presidential
Immunity”
in
the
same
order
where
she
instructed
the
special
counsel
to
file
it.
The
only
issue
is
how
long
it’s
going
to
be,
and
grandstanding
about
“a
premature
and
improper
Special
Counsel
report”
is
wholly
beside
the
point.
But
performative
outrage
is
more
or
less
their
entire
legal
strategy,
so
instead
they
screamed
out
this
incoherent
demand
that
the
court
“deny
the
Motion
and
reconsider
the
September
5,
2024
scheduling
order,
by
rejecting
the
Office’s
lawless
request
to
file
a
180-page
public
defense
of
their
defective
Superseding
Indictment
before
they
are
in
compliance
with
their
discovery
obligations.”
Lotsa
luck!
US
v.
Trump
[Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.