Judge rejects Trump bid to hold Jack Smith in contempt, but restricts additional filings

A judge on Thursday declined to hold special counsel Jack Smith but required that he seek court permission before he make additional filings in his prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

“The Stay Order did not clearly and unambiguously prohibit the Government actions to which Defendant objects,” U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote, according to The Hill. “On its own terms, then, the Stay Order’s key operative sentence did not clearly bar the Government from voluntary rather than obligatory compliance with the Pretrial Order’s now-stayed deadlines.”

Earlier this month, Trump’s legal team asked Chutkan to hold Smith in contempt, arguing that his continued filings and pursuit of the case despite a court-ordered pause merited such action. Chutkan paused the case in December amid Trump’s appeal of her rejection of his presidential immunity claims.

“The prosecutors repeatedly engaged in that exact conduct, disobeying the Stay Order at least three times in just two weeks … The prosecutors have no justification for their misconduct,” Trump’s team insisted. Smith, for his part, decried the assertion as “baseless.”