Jack Smith just ripped Donald Trump’s court filing to pieces
When Donald Trump filed a request a few days ago asking that his January 6th criminal trial take place in 2026, I said that the appropriate response was not outrage or fretting, but laughter. Not only does Trump have literally zero hope of getting his trial delayed for this long, filing this kind of asinine request can only serve to backfire and result in a swifter trial.
Sure enough, today Jack Smith proved why this is the case. He filed a blistering response to Trump’s 2026 request, ripping it apart piece by piece. Smith even went as far as spelling out how Trump’s team quoted various statistics incorrectly. It’s precisely the kind of filing that you knew Smith would bring, and it’s why there was never anything to worry about on this front. Smith was never going to say “Oh no, Trump’s got us now with his request for a 2026 trial, there’s nothing we can do!” Smith simply laughed at Trump’s filing, and ripped it to pieces with his own filing.
Here’s the thing. There isn’t automatically a right answer for when to hold a trial. A judge will typically look at the arguments made by both the prosecution and the defense, and try to find some kind of middle ground that addresses the points raised by each side. But because Trump made a nonsense filing seeking an imaginary timeframe, he pretty much forfeited his opportunity to make the case for a delay at all. If Trump had asked for six months later than Smith wanted, maybe the judge would have given Trump three months later than Smith wanted. But because Trump’s filing is just a middle finger, the judge isn’t going to give his side any consideration at all.
This is why you have to laugh at Trump, and chalk it up as a victory, each time he has his lawyers make this kind of nonsense filing. Trump is throwing away his finite opportunities to get the judge to grant anything he’s asking for. The judge ends up seeing it as empty noise. And it just makes it easier for Jack Smith to get his way.
