Aggressive swing

Trump's team is taking an aggressive swing on Pence's conduct to get whole case thrown out

From CNN's Tierney Sneed

Donald Trump’s team is trying to tee up a key early battle: Whether the entire indictment should fall if former Vice President Mike Pence-related conduct is immune. 

Trump’s lawyers previewed the arguments in Friday’s filing. In Thursday’s hearing, Trump attorney John Lauro is focused on trying to convince Judge Tanya Chutkan that if she decides Trump’s interactions with Pence are covered under the immunity ruling, the whole case must be thrown out.

Lauro contends that moving forward that way is actually the more economical approach, because it could save the court from doing lengthy briefings on other allegations in the indictment if she decides the whole case must be dismissed on the Pence issue alone.

The argument does not appear to be resonating with Chutkan, who told Lauro that that she does not believe that deciding the Pence matter first — and whether its fatal to the entire case — is what “I was instructed to do by the Supreme Court.”

Smith’s team pushed back as well, arguing that Trump lawyers were taking a line out of the Supreme Court opinion out of context.

If the Pence-related conduct is deemed immune, “It is not an automatic dismissal of the indictment,” prosecutor Thomas Windom said.