Special counsel urges judge to reject Trump’s bid to toss Jan. 6 obstruction charges

Special counsel Jack Smith is urging the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s federal election interference case to reject an effort by Trump’s attorneys to throw out obstruction-related charges brought against the former president following a Supreme Court ruling this summer that narrowed the statute’s use against Jan. 6 rioters.
Trump’s attorneys have argued that the obstruction of an official proceeding statute should no longer apply to Trump’s alleged conduct in the indictment against him, arguing that Trump was never directly involved in obstructing the Jan. 6 vote-certification proceedings.
But Smith, in a new filing, said his recent superseding indictment clearly alleges Trump and his co-conspirators’ involvement in attempting to send fraudulent certificates to Congress that day, for then-Vice President Mike Pence to use as he presided over the certification.
“As set forth in the superseding indictment, the defendant and others began in early December 2020 to cause individuals to serve as the defendant’s purported electors in several targeted states with the intent that those individuals ‘make and send to the Vice President and Congress false certifications that they were legitimate electors,'” Smith wrote.
“Ultimately, the defendant sought” to “certify illegal votes” through “fraudulent elector certificates” that were “mailed to the President of the Senate, the Archivist of the United States, and others in connection with the January 6 proceeding to certify the 2020 presidential election results,” wrote Smith.
Trump last year pleaded not guilty to federal charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election in order to remain in power. In June, the Supreme Court limited the scope of a federal obstruction statute used by prosecutors to charge more than 300 Jan. 6 defendants, including Trump.
Smith subsequently charged Trump in a superseding indictment that was adjusted to respect the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken as president.
In his new filing, Smith also disputed arguments put forward by Trump’s attorneys that the former president “bears no factual or legal responsibility” for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
The superseding indictment “plainly alleges that the defendant willfully caused his supporters to obstruct and attempt to obstruct the proceeding by summoning them to Washington, D.C., and then directing them to march to the Capitol to pressure the Vice President and legislators to reject the legitimate certificates and instead rely on the fraudulent electoral certificates,” Smith wrote.
The move comes as the federal judge overseeing the case issued an order Wednesday largely rejecting a series of requests from Trump’s attorneys for the government to hand over additional discovery they argued could be relevant to Trump’s defense.
Trump’s attorneys had requested that U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan order Smith to scour nine government agencies for evidence that they said could aid them in disputing the case, but in a 50-page order Chutkan mostly dismissed their arguments as baseless, speculative, or having no relevance to Trump’s state of mind during the time of his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Chutkan, however, did grant the Trump team’s request to have Smith search for information regarding the Justice Department’s investigation into classified documents found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s residence last year — which Trump’s attorneys have argued they could use to impeach Pence’s testimony if it influenced him to testify in Smith’s probe.