It’s been a busy week for special counsel Jack Smith’s team and their prosecutions of Donald Trump. It was, for example, just a few days ago when Smith asked the U.S. Supreme Court to immediately consider the question of whether the former president has immunity on actions he took to overturn the 2020 election. He also asked an appeals court to fast-track its consideration of the same issue.
Common sense might suggest that members of Team Trump, if they were confident in their immunity claims, would want the matter to proceed quickly. After all, if their argument were correct, pending charges against the former president would start disappearing.
But the Republican’s lawyers are apparently in no rush. In fact, in a court filing this week, they went so far as to accuse the special counsel of being a “Grinch” because he expects Trump’s staff to work through the winter holidays. NBC News reported:
Trump’s lawyers made the comparison in a court filing Wednesday that unsuccessfully urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rule against Smith’s request for an expedited appeal on whether Trump can claim presidential immunity in a criminal case accusing him of illegally trying to stay in power after his 2020 election loss.
In the filing, Trump’s attorneys, referencing Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” said that signing off on Smith’s proposed schedule “would make President Trump’s opening brief due the day after Christmas. This proposed schedule would require attorneys and support staff to work round-the-clock through the holidays, inevitably disrupting family and travel plans. It is as if the Special Counsel ‘growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming, “I must find some way to keep Christmas from coming. … But how?”’”
At this point, I could write a couple of paragraphs about how fundamentally unserious such an argument is. I could also point out that the current deadline is Dec. 23 — which is both before Christmas and after Hanukkah.
But there’s an even more important flaw in this entire line of argument.
As MSNBC’s Alex Wagner explained, at issue is a case stemming from Trump’s post-defeat efforts — which unfolded through the holiday season three years ago. The then-president and his team, to borrow the phrasing from this week’s court filing, worked “round-the-clock through the holidays,” apparently indifferent to the fact that such work “disrupted family and travel plans.”
The “craziest meeting of the Trump presidency“ was held during Hanukkah, a week before Christmas. Trump spent the week of Christmas encouraging his followers to come to the nation’s capital on Jan. 6. Memos outlining the plot to give Trump illegitimate power were written at the same time.
According to Smith’s indictment, it was on Dec. 25 when Trump urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to help overturn the election. It was two days later when the then-president told senior Justice Department officials, “Just say that the election was corrupt [and] leave the rest to me” and to the Republican’s congressional allies.
It was five days later when Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn Biden’s victory in the state.
All of which is to say, members of Team Trump don’t have a problem with working over the holidays when they’re attacking democracy. They only have a problem with working over the holidays when Trump is being held accountable for attacking democracy.
