Why Jack Smith is leaning on the fake electors scheme to try to save his Trump Jan. 6 case

The extent of Donald Trump’s immunity from prosecution is the main event in the federal election interference case. But we were reminded on Wednesday that it’s not the only issue.

That’s when special counsel Jack Smith filed his response to a Trump motion that seeks to crush the case based on another Jan. 6-related Supreme Court ruling: Fischer v. United States. The justices narrowed obstruction charges against Jan. 6 defendants in that case in June. The GOP presidential nominee is charged with obstruction in two of his four counts in the federal election interference case, so he wants to harness the Fischer case to dismiss his charges.

But not so fast, Smith says. The special counsel wrote in his response on Wednesday:

The defendant’s motion ignores entirely that the case against him includes allegations that he and his co-conspirators sought to create and use false evidence — fraudulent electoral certificates — as a means of obstructing the certification proceeding, which Fischer expressly held falls within Section 1512(c)(2) [the obstruction statute].