Jack Smith drops hammer on Trump in new filing: 'Defendant is not above the law'

Donald Trump is "not above the law," according to a new filing by special counsel Jack Smith in which the prosecutor dismantles the former president's argument that he is absolutely immune from prosecution due to his former office.

Trump asked the D.C. court to dismiss the criminal counts against him for alleged election subversion in the case before Judge Tanya Chutkan, arguing that he has presidential immunity. That motion was compared by one former prosecutor to a bid to turn "presidents into kings."

Now, Smith has filed his response to that effort.

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In the recently publicized filing, Smith argues that Trump is trying to set himself apart from every other citizen in the entire United States.

"He is subject to the federal criminal laws like more than 330 million other Americans, including Members of Congress, federal judges, and everyday citizens," Smith wrote in the motion filed Thursday. "None of the sources the defendant points to in his motion—the Constitution’s text and structure, history and tradition, or Supreme Court precedent—supports the absolute immunity he asks the Court to create for him."

The prosecutor further notes that Trump attempts to "draw a parallel between his fraudulent efforts to overturn the results of an election that he lost and the likes of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and George Washington’s Farewell Address."

"These things are not alike," Smith wrote in the brief. "The more apt parallel the defendant identifies is to judges, who, like a former president, enjoy absolute immunity from civil damages liability for certain conduct but who are 'subject to criminal prosecutions as are other citizens.' The same is true for the defendant."

Smith concludes by calling on the judge to completely reject Trump's motion for immunity.

You can read the full 54-page motion here.