Reuters/Jerry Lampen
Special counsel Jack Smith filed a motion Wednesday asking a judge to bar Donald Trump and his lawyers from injecting “political attacks” and conspiracy theories into his upcoming election subversion trial.
The 20-page filing, obtained by The Daily Beast, specifically asks U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to ban Trump from “raising irrelevant political issues or arguments in front of the jury,” a sweeping request that’d likely disrupt Trump’s defense strategy.
The motion said these political attacks, “in addition to being wrong,” would also be “prejudicial if presented to the jury.” It cited Trump’s public comments outside the courtroom—namely his claims that President Joe Biden has ordered his prosecution because he’s seeking a return to the White House—as evidence that he’d likely claim on the stand that his criminal trial in Washington, D.C., is politically motivated.