WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 The federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump on Thursday rejected his lawyers' bid to hold special counsel Jack Smith's team in contempt for actions prosecutors took after the judge put the case on hold. But the judge said no further 鈥渟ubstantive鈥 court filings should be submitted without permission.
The former president's lawyers had accused prosecutors of 鈥渙utrageous conduct鈥 for turning over to the defense thousands of pages of evidence and filing a motion after the judge Trump appeals his presidential immunity claim. The defense said prosecutors were violating a court order that put the case on hold so Trump can pursue his claim in higher courts.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said in her ruling Thursday that her Dec. 13 order pausing the case did not 鈥渃learly and unambiguously鈥 prohibit those actions by Smith鈥檚 team. However, she agreed with Trump to bar all parties in the case from filing 鈥渁ny further substantive pretrial motions鈥 without first seeking permission from the court until the pause is lifted.
At issue was the order from Chutkan after Trump appealed to a higher court an earlier ruling that . In her order, Chutkan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, said that Trump鈥檚 appeal 鈥渁utomatically stays any further proceedings that would move this case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation鈥 on Trump.
The trial is currently scheduled to begin March 4 in Washington's federal court, but is likely to be postponed as Trump's immunity claim winds through higher courts. A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Washington and could issue its ruling any day.
Prosecutors acknowledged in a filing late last month that the case had been paused, but they said the government would 鈥渃ontinue to meet its own deadlines as previously determined鈥 by the court 鈥渢o promote the prompt resumption of the pretrial schedule鈥 if and when the case returns to Chutkan.
The case accusing Trump of is one of four criminal cases the Republican is facing as he vies to return to the White House this year.
