Trump Attorneys Argue Jack Smith’s Obstruction Charges Be Dismissed Citing Supreme Court’s ‘Fischer’ Decision
Trump attorneys have filed a memo in support of their motion to dismiss all charges brought against former President Donald Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith. The memo, filed on October 3, 2024, discusses the Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States v. Fischer, which they believe further supports their argument to dismiss the obstruction charges.
In their filing, Trump attorneys argue that Smith’s superseding indictment against the former president, which was filed after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents and former presidents have immunity from official acts, “seeks to assign blame for events President Trump did not control and took action to protect against.” They also argue that federal prosecutors have taken the opposite position in this District, and that General Mark Milley acknowledged long before charges were brought in this case that Trump “had instructed the Defense Department on January 3, 2021, to ‘make sure that you have sufficient National Guard or Soldiers to make sure it is a safe event'”.
Trump attorneys also stress that Smith and federal prosecutors “cannot ignore or hide from” new precedent from the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Fischer, which they claim is “another key application of the rule of law to reject lawfare overreach targeting President Trump.” The filing states that Fischer requires the dismissal of Counts Two and Three of the Superseding Indictment, and its logic fatally undermines Counts One and Four as well.
Additionally, Trump attorneys argue that there is no precedent for a criminal prosecution based on the record of the congressional debates on certificate objections contemplated by the Electoral Count Act (ECA), and that Smith’s office “cannot establish the required nexus between alleged obstruction and any ‘evidence’ used or that anyone acted with corrupt intent”.
