A new order from federal Judge Tanya Chutkan directs a production of relevant evidence that’s quicker than what Donald Trump wanted if the former president moves forward with an advice-of-counsel defense for his January 6 trial. That means the ex-president’s team will need to be turning over key documents more quickly if they’re using that defense, which Trump’s personal comments suggest.
The underlying case, from Special Counsel Jack Smith, accuses Trump of criminal conspiracies targeting the 2020 election results, and the advice-of-counsel defense would involve claims Trump was just relying on lawyers’ advice in certain, contested areas. Trump’s team had wanted to drag out making the disclosures of evidence potentially relevant to making that defense to well after they formally notified the court whether they’d be raising that defense at all, but Chutkan is blocking this approach. Instead, she’s ordering that connected evidence be produced alongside any notification the defense will be coming, which is due January.
Chutkan noted in the order that Trump’s team had agreed to at least the base condition of providing advance notice of any intentions for an advice-of-counsel defense. Providing the notice and making associated, evidentiary disclosures will assist in the efficient preparation by all parties involved for trial, considering the expectation of allowing the other side — meaning the prosecution — to prepare a response to whatever Trump’s team might be putting forward.
“As he has consented to do, Defendant shall provide formal notice whether he intends to assert an advice-of-counsel defense by January 15, 2024. If Defendant does provide affirmative notice of that intent, he must also provide the required discovery to the government at that time: “any communications or evidence [Defendant] intend[s] to use to establish the defense,” and “otherwise-privileged communications that [Defendant does] not intend to use at trial, but that are relevant to proving or undermining the advice-of-counsel defense . . . in their entirety,”” Chutkan ordered on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the government also recently submitted arguments defending their statements connecting Trump to the violence of January 6 and rebuffing claims from the ex-president’s team that disputed statements of his are covered by the First Amendment.
