DENIED: Judge Shoots Down Trump Attempt to Delay Deadline For Protective Order Response
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan on Saturday denied a motion from the attorneys for Donald Trump seeking to have the Monday deadline for responding to the prosecution’s protective order request moved to Thursday, after a flurry of filings from both sides.
On Friday, Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team filed a motion for the judge to issue a protective order, specifically citing a Truth Social post from Trump as part of the basis for the request. On Saturday, Judge Chutkan issued an order that Trump’s team must respond to the motion by 5pm on Monday.
A short time later, Trump’s lawyer’s filed their own motion asking the deadline be moved to Thursday, August 10.
“At approximately 6:00 PM on Friday evening, the government e-mailed defense counsel its proposed protective order,” the motion from Trump’s attorneys reads. “The government entertained no discussion regarding the content or scope of the Proposed Order, but instead demanded an immediate, take-it-or-leave-it response. Hours later, the government filed its motion, Doc. 10 (the “Motion”), requesting the Court adopt the Proposed Order without awaiting Defendant’s responsive briefing, contrary to LCrR 47 and bedrock due process principles.”
“This morning, the Court entered a minute order, directing Defendant to respond by August 7, 5:00 PM. To ensure counsel has adequate time to prepare a fulsome response, Defendant respectfully requests the Court briefly extend this schedule by three days to permit Defendant’s response by August 10, 2023,” it said. “This is substantially less time than provided for by LCrR 47 (generally allowing 14 days to respond to motions) and will enable Defendant to fully assess the Proposed Order and advise the Court of applicable law.” (See full document below.)
Not long after that, the prosecution made their own filing in opposition to the request for a delay.
“The Government wants to provide discovery to the defendant. By his motion, the defendant seeks to delay that process. The defendant’s motion should be denied,” Smith’s team wrote. (See full document below.)
And denied it was. Chutkan issued a minute order late Saturday afternoon :
MINUTE ORDER as to DONALD J. TRUMP: Defendant’s 11 Motion for Extension of Time is hereby DENIED. Defendant may continue to confer with the government regarding its proposed protective order before or after the August 7, 2023 5:00 PM deadline for his response. The court will determine whether to schedule a hearing to discuss the proposed protective order after reviewing Defendant’s response and, if included, his revised proposed protective order with modifications in redline. Signed by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on 08/05/2023
The motion for the extension:
The government’s response to the motion:
Trump’s Truth Social post that sparked the series of filings also prompted a flurry of media and political responses, including a statement from Trump’s campaign defending his comments as protected political speech.
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