The filing by President Trump of a motion taking the position that Special Counsel Jack Smith ought to be held in contempt for violating a judicial order — he calls it “malignant” and “brazen” conduct — signals a ratcheting up of already sky-high tensions between the 45th president and the prosecutor.

Mr. Trump’s case for contempt stems from Mr. Smith’s dogged determination to carry on with his January 6 case despite Judge Tanya Chutkan’s pause pending review of whether Mr. Trump is protected by presidential immunity. Mr. Smith, who convinced Judge Chutkan that immunity is not a privilege enjoyed by a former president for actions conducted during his presidency, has vowed to meet deadlines for the case as if it is active. 

Mr. Smith, who is tenaciously trying to keep Judge Chutkan to her scheduled trial date of March 4 in his haste to win a conviction of Mr. Trump before the election, insists that his continuous filing is necessary in order to promptly resume the case once the stay is lifted. He has pushed for expedited review of the immunity issue at both the United States Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Oral arguments are set for Tuesday at the D.C. Circuit.

Now comes Mr. Trump with a motion that aims to stop the special counsel in his tracks. He writes that “all substantive proceedings in this Court are halted” but that prosecutors began violating that status quo “almost immediately” by serving “thousands of pages of additional discovery, together with a purported draft exhibit list.” 

Even worse, Mr. Trump argues, was what came next. Mr. Smith filed a motion seeking to bar what the special counsel called “irrelevant” information from reaching the jury, a filing that the 45th president argues “mirrors the Biden Administration’s dishonest talking points, asserting, again falsely, that President Trump was responsible for the events of January 6, 2021.” 

Especially galling for Mr. Trump is that this “political propaganda” was unleashed while the case was suspended and the government knew that he “would not fully respond because the Court relieved him of the burdens of litigation during the Stay.” Mr. Trump accuses Mr. Smith of  “effectively converting this Court’s docket into an arm of the Biden Campaign.” 

Judge Chutkan’s order stayed “any further proceedings that would move this case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation,” a state of play that Mr. Trump argues Mr. Smith is violating in his push to continue “partisan-driven misconduct indefinitely,” in the form of unceasing pre-trial paperwork. 

Mr. Trump’s request for a remedy is expansive. He wants Judge Chutkan to “issue an order to show cause why the prosecutors should not be held in contempt.” He also wants all filings from this period to be withdrawn and for the government to be forbidden from adding new ones during the pendency of the appeal. He seeks compensation in the form of “assessed monetary sanctions” to cover fees racked up during the stay.

Mr. Smith’s conduct in pushing the case forward is, Mr. Trump reckons, “brazen” and “malicious,” and amounts to “harassment.” The 45th president, reaching for rousing rhetoric more often seen in his social media postings, denounces the “twisted view that the Stay Order is merely a suggestion meaning less than the paper it is written on.” 

While Mr. Trump has long denounced his trials as “witch hunts,” this motion unspools a more intricate case for the relationship between politics and prosecution. He accuses Mr. Smith of “strategically” seeding “political talking points” in legal filings, talking points that “spread like wildfire, reaching every major news outlet in the country within minutes.”  

Mr. Trump argues that Mr. Smith’s ultimate goal is not to secure a conviction but to “harass President Trump and prevent his likely victory in the 2024 Presidential Election.” He tells Judge Chutkan that the “only way to obtain compliance from recalcitrant prosecutors such as these is to force them to acknowledge their wrongdoing and affirmatively withdraw their offensive actions.”

“The prosecutors,” Mr. Trump maintains, “have cast these hallowed mandates aside to score cheap political points against President Trump on behalf of the Biden Campaign.” Should Judge Chutkan be persuaded, it will fall to Mr. Smith to put pen to paper to make the case why his office should not be held in contempt, a determination that can trigger penalties like fines or even imprisonment.