There’s another new filing today in the criminal trial of Don Blankenship. Defense attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge Irene Berger to strike from the case Government’s Exhibit 83, which is an email in which Massey safety official Elizabeth Chamberlin was sending Blankenship a comparison of Massey’s safety record to a variety of other coal companies.

In its new motion, the defense says:

The total number of citations and orders issued to all Massey mines and facilities regulated by MSHA and how they compare to the number of citations and orders issued to other companies is not relevant to any count of the indictment.

Count One of the indictment is expressly limited to conduct at the UBB mine and does not concern any other Massey or non-Massey coal mine or facility.