Former President Donald Trump is objecting to a motion by special counsel Jack Smith requesting Judge Tanya Chutkan order the former president to disclose whether he intends to rely on an advice-of-counsel defense at trial.
Smith filed a motion to force Trump to confirm or deny his plans to use the key defense, a move many said was an attempt to obtain key attorney communications that would otherwise be covered by attorney-client privilege.
Trump opposed that motion in a brief filed on Friday.
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"Under the Federal Rules, a defendant has no obligation, outside certain inapplicable exceptions, to provide his accusers with pretrial disclosures of trial strategies, including any potential invocation of a formal advice of counsel defense," said the filing. "The Local Criminal Rules, likewise, feature no such requirements."
The filing urges Chutkan to deny the motion.
Legal experts have noted that Trump's intention of using this defense is highly significant.
It is likely his only credible defense for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, to claim that he was advised by his attorneys that the plan was legal and he therefore had no malicious intent.
However, were he to disclose his use of this defense at this juncture, it would also eliminate the attorney-client privilege he has on many of the communications he made with his lawyers, because then those communications would become relevant evidence as to whether he was truly advised to commit illegal acts.
