Special counsel Jack Smith fired back at former President Donald Trump's motion to have his 2020 election subversion case dismissed.
Trump's legal team has argued that the former president cannot be charged with four counts of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election because he has free speech rights and was acquitted during a Senate impeachment trial.
But Smith knocked down those arguments in a motion filed on Monday.
"Rather than challenging the indictment on its merits, the defendant's motions... attack the indictment by mischaracterizing its allegations, raising inapposite hypotheticals, and advancing arguments that are long on rhetoric but short on law. Stripped of those distractions, the defendant's statutory and constitutional claims are entirely meritless," the motion stated. "The detailed allegations in the 45-page indictment are more than adequate to charge that the defendant conspired to defeat a federal government function through deceit and dishonest means."
Smith noted that it does not matter if Trump believes he won the election.
"The allegations that the defendant sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election by resorting to fraud, deceit, and corruption place his conduct well outside the protections afforded by the First Amendment and likewise put him fully on notice that his conduct was criminal and thus subject to prosecution," the filing said. "Finally, the defendant's prior acquittal in a Senate trial following his impeachment in the House does not foreclose this criminal prosecution, and his particular reliance on the Double Jeopardy Clause is frivolous. The Court should deny the defendant's motions."
