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."

Though Chutkan ultimately opted against holding Smith in contempt, she did restrict his ability to file new motions without court permission amid the pause.

"Diligent defense counsel will need to conduct a preliminary review of each substantive motion the Government files in order to know whether they need to take further action. While that is not a major burden, it is a cognizable one," she acknowledged. "Accordingly, the court will adopt Defendant’s recommendation that the parties be forbidden from filing any further substantive pretrial motions without first seeking leave from the court."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.