Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Tag: attorneys
Trump’s attorneys argue for narrower protective order in 2020 election case
Washington — Former President Donald Trump’s legal team said only “genuinely sensitive materials” should be shielded from public view in response to a request from special counsel Jack Smith, who asked a judge to limit what evidence could be publicly shared in the case involving Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
In a 29-page court filing on Monday, Trump attorney Todd Blanche and John Lauro argued for a much narrower protective order than Smith had proposed, saying “a less restrictive alternative that would satisfy any government interest in confidentiality while preserving the First Amendment rights of President Trump and the public.”
“In a trial about First Amendment rights, the government seeks to restrict First Amendment rights,” Trump’s attorneys wrote. “Worse, it does so against its administration’s primary political opponent, during an election season in which the administration, prominent party members, and media allies have campaigned on the indictment and proliferated its false allegations.”
The defense team said only material deemed “sensitive” — including grand jury information, material derived from sealed search warrants and personal details — should be blocked from public disclosure as the case progresses.
“President Trump does not contest the government’s claimed interest in restricting some of the documents it must produce, such as those containing Rule 49.1 information and Rule 6 grand jury materials,” the attorneys said, referring to personally identifiable information and grand jury material, respectively. “However, the need to protect that information does not require a blanket gag order over all documents produced by the government. Rather, the Court can, and should, limit its protective order to genuinely sensitive materials.”
Trump is charged with four criminal counts accusing him of trying to thwart the 2020 election results through several schemes that sought to block the transfer of power to President Biden. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
In a court filing last Friday, Smith said he was ready to hand over a “substantial” amount of evidence to Trump’s defense team, but asked U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan to issue a protective order that would bar Trump and his attorneys from improperly disclosing evidence. The government’s proposed order would apply to “[a]ll materials provided by the United States in preparation for, or in connection with, any stage of this case” and would bar their disclosure beyond the defense team, potential witnesses and their attorneys and others authorized by the court.
Smith said restrictions on what evidence could be made public are “particularly important in this case” because Trump has posted on social media about “witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him.”
He pointed to a Truth Social post from Trump earlier Friday that said, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
“If the defendant were to begin issuing public posts using details — or, for example, grand jury transcripts — obtained in discovery here, it could have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case,” the court filing said.
Trump’s campaign said in a statement Saturday that the Truth Social post was in response to “dishonest special interest groups” and political committees that have attacked him.
Trump’s lawyers also addressed that post in Monday’s filing, saying it “does nothing to support the [government’s] Proposed Order.”
“The government argues that, based on this post, there is a danger that President Trump might publish grand jury transcripts or other sensitive information,” they said. “A provocative claim when searching for
headlines, perhaps, but one that falters under minimal scrutiny.”
The filing argued that the government “does not explain how a post on a different topic, which does not include or describe sensitive information, suggests President Trump might disseminate such information in the future.”
The former president’s legal team had sought more time to respond to the government’s request for a protective order, but Chutkan denied the request, keeping in place a Monday afternoon deadline.
In the hours leading up to the deadline, Trump lashed out at Smith and Chutkan in a series of Truth Social posts.
“I shouldn’t have a protective order placed on me because it would impinge upon my right to FREE SPEECH,” Trump said in one.
Suspect in University of Idaho killings was out driving alone around time of deaths, attorneys say
The man accused of killing four University of Idaho students went for a drive alone the night and morning before their bodies were found, his defense attorneys wrote in court documents.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, was indicted in May on four counts of murder and other charges in connection with the stabbing deaths of the four students who were found dead in a home off-campus on Nov. 13.
In a motion filed Wednesday by his attorneys objecting to a motion by the prosecution, Kohberger said he was out driving late Nov. 12 and into the next day.
“Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone. Often he would go for drives at night. He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022,” his attorneys wrote.
The bodies of the students — Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Kaylee Goncalves — were found in a home in Moscow, Idaho, after someone called 911 just before noon, authorities said.
Attorneys for Kohberger wrote in the motion filed Wednesday that Kohberger was driving into “the early morning hours” of Nov. 13. The motion does not specify a time.
Kohberger has pleaded not guilty.
His attorneys wrote in Wednesday’s motion that they will try and corroborate that Kohberger was not at the home where the bodies were found through expert witness testimony.
They said an analysis and their own investigation is underway.
The killings shocked the city of Moscow, population around 25,000, and the university of around 11,000 that calls it home
Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania early Dec. 30., more than six weeks after the killings.
More coverage of the Idaho slayings
His attorneys in Wednesday’s motion were responding to a motion by prosecutors to compel a “motive of defense of alibi.”
Kohberger’s attorneys wrote that “Mr. Kohberger was out driving alone” and that corroboration evidence may come from cross-examination of witnesses for the state, or presentations by defense experts.
Kohberger was a doctoral student at Washington State University in Pullman, around seven miles away from the University of Idaho. He had been in the criminal justice program there and was a teaching assistant in the fall 2022 semester, the university said.
He had graduated from nearby DeSales University in 2020 with a degree in psychology and earned a master of arts in criminal justice from DeSales in June 2022, that university has said.
Bryan Kohberger’s attorneys ask judge to dismiss indictment in Idaho slayings case
Attorneys for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students last year, have filed a motion seeking to get his indictment in the slayings dismissed, a court filing shows.
In the filing, dated Tuesday, attorneys for Kohberger, 28, argue that the grand jury was “misled as to the standard of proof required for an indictment.”
They say the grand jury should have been informed that the standard of proof required for an indictment would be “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
However, they argue that the grand jury was instead “erroneously instructed” with the standard of proof required for a “presentment,” which they say would mean having a “reasonable ground for believing the defendant has committed” an alleged offense.
“The failure to properly instruct a Grand Jury as to the standard of proof is grounds for dismissal of the Indictment,” the filing states.
More on the Idaho slayings
If the judge refuses to dismiss the indictment, Kohberger’s defense team has asked for a new preliminary hearing to determine whether the case should move forward. The Latah County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment.
Kohberger is accused of fatally stabbing Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho, on Nov. 13. Any potential motive remains unknown.
Kohberger, a doctoral candidate at nearby Washington State University studying criminology, was arrested on Dec. 30 in Monroe County in northeastern Pennsylvania.
A grand jury in Latah County indicted him on murder charges on May 16, and he was arraigned on May 22, with a judge entering a not guilty plea on all murder charges.
Attorneys for Kohberger recently suggested they had evidence that would corroborate him being at a location other than the crime scene on the night of the slayings that left four University of Idaho students dead.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have previously said in court documents that DNA on a knife sheath found at the off-campus home where the four students were killed directly links Kohberger to the crime scene.
A June 16 filing from the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office said law enforcement officials used investigative genetic genealogy to link DNA found on the sheath to the suspect. The investigation found the DNA was at least 5.37 octillion times more likely to be Kohberger’s than an unrelated member of the public, according to the document.
Law enforcement sources had previously told NBC News that DNA played a role in helping investigators identify Kohberger as a suspect.
Kohberger’s trial is tentatively set to begin on Oct. 2.