(Photo
by
PAUL
J.
RICHARDS/AFP/Getty
Images)
That
didn’t
take
long.
Less
than
24
hours
after
Trump
docketed
his
screaming
tantrum
masquerading
an
opposition
to
a
routine
request
to
file
an
overlong
brief,
Judge
Tanya
Chutkan
has
already
batted
it
down.
“For
the
second
time
in
a
week,
Defendant
urges
reconsideration
of
the
current
pretrial
schedule
in
a
brief
intended
to
respond
to
a
separate
issue,
and
without
actually
filing
a
motion
to
that
effect,”
she
wrote
tartly,
adding
that
“For
completeness,
however,
the
court
will
address
more
broadly
Defendant’s
new
and
sundry
arguments
about
the
pretrial
schedule,
none
of
which
articulate
a
cognizable
prejudice.”
First,
she
explained,
as
if
to
a
small
child,
that
criminal
prosecution
is
necessarily
an
adversary
process:
[A]llowing
a
brief
from
the
Government
is
not
“contrary
to
law
procedure,
and
custom,”
as
Defendant
claims,
id.
(citing
no
authority);
it
is
simply
how
litigation
works:
Each
side
presents
arguments
and
proffers
evidence
on
disputed
issues—here,
whether
Defendant’s
charged
conduct
involved
official
acts
and
receives
immunity.
Indeed,
Defendant
appears
to
embrace
a
similar
approach.
Then
she
noted
that
Trump
himself
proposed
briefing
on
the
very
same
topics,
albeit
at
a
glacially
slow
pace
that
deferred
substantive
motions
until
after
the
election.
“Defendant’s
concern
with
the
political
consequences
of
these
proceedings
does
not
bear
on
the
pretrial
schedule,”
she
scoffed.
The
judicial
eye-roll
fairly
wafts
off
the
page
in
a
paragraph
dealing
with
Trump’s
contention
that
it
is
NO
FAIR
to
let
the
special
counsel
file
stuff
when
he
is
still
barred
by
the
gag
order
from
calling
in
troll
storms
on
potential
witnesses.
“[T]he
former
contention
mischaracterizes
the
court’s
order,
and
even
so
identifies
potential
political
consequences
rather
than
legal
prejudice,”
she
wrote
incredulously.
“The
court
likewise
rejects
Defendant’s
unsupported
assertion
that
publicly
docketing
nonsensitive
materials
during
the
immunity
briefing
would
impermissibly
‘impact
potential
witnesses
and
taint
the
jury
pool.’”
Judge
Chutkan
finished
by
swatting
aside
Trump’s
complaint
that,
by
filing
a
brief
under
court
order,
the
special
counsel
will
violate
the
DOJ’s
internal
policy
against
taking
legal
actions
this
close
to
an
election.
(It
doesn’t
—
the
policy
pertains
to
charging
and
investigatory
decisions,
and
Trump
was
indicted
in
2023.)
“Defendant
does
not
explain
how
those
putative
violations
cause
him
legal
prejudice
in
this
case,
nor
how
this
court
is
bound
by
or
has
jurisdiction
to
enforce
Department
of
Justice
policy,”
she
concluded.
It
was
a
vicious
smackdown,
preserving
for
the
record
exactly
how
shitty
and
unserious
Trump’s
arguments
are.
And
so
on
Thursday,
or
shortly
thereafter
depending
on
how
long
it
takes
to
vet
the
redactions,
we’ll
get
the
special
counsel’s
brief
explaining
why
the
amended
indictment
included
the
pressure
campaign
against
Mike
Pence
and
how
that
is
entirely
consonant
with
the
Supreme
Court’s
immunity
ruling.
Which
is
exactly
what
Trump
was
desperate
to
head
off,
since
it
reminds
us
that
the
Republican
nominee
for
president
tried
to
mount
a
coup
less
than
four
years
ago.
US
v.
Trump [Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.