'Craziest meeting of the Trump presidency' blows apart Grinch attack: columnist

A new column ripped Donald Trump's lawyers to shreds for comparing special counsel Jack Smith to the Grinch.

The former president's lawyers filed a response complaining about the swift timeline proposed by the special counsel's office in their successful petition to the U.S. Supreme Court — and how it would ruin the Trump team's family Christmases.

MSNBC columnist Steve Benen mocked them for griping that they might have to draft motions during the holidays.

"At this point, I could write a couple of paragraphs about how fundamentally unserious such an argument is," Benen wrote. "I could also point out that the current deadline is Dec. 23 — which is both before Christmas and after Hanukkah."

But, he noted, Trump allegedly carried out some of his post-election efforts to overturn his 2020 loss — which forms the basis of his indictment in the Washington, D.C., case — occurred during the holiday season.

"The 'craziest meeting of the Trump presidency' was held during Hanukkah, a week before Christmas," Benen wrote. "Trump spent the week of Christmas encouraging his followers to come to the nation’s capital on Jan. 6. Memos outlining the plot to give Trump illegitimate power were written at the same time."

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The indictment lists Christmas Day as the date when Trump urged former vice president Mike Pence to help overturn the election results, and two days later pressed senior Justice Department officials and congressional allies to help him corrupt the election, and he made his infamous call to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger just after New Year's Day.

"All of which is to say, members of Team Trump don’t have a problem with working over the holidays when they’re attacking democracy," Benen wrote. "They only have a problem with working over the holidays when Trump is being held accountable for attacking democracy."