2 hours ago
2
A judge on Friday unsealed nearly 1,900 pages of evidence Special counsel Jack Smith assembled in building the election interference case against former President Trump, posting publicly the highly redacted trove.
Though the bulk of the documents are redacted, with many pages fully unviewable, the documents still provide a window into the breadth of Smith’s case.
Much of what readers are able to review is already public, including transcripts from the now-disbanded House Jan. 6 committee, press releases from various secretaries of state, the text of Trump’s rally speech and phone call with Georgia officials, and even real election certificates showing President Biden as the winner of the 2020 contest. One of the exhibits appears to review much of Trump’s then-Twitter activity from the period of the election.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who oversees the trial proceedings, released the information against objections from Trump, suggesting his desire to shield the information due to the election amounted to its own form of interference.
“If the court withheld information that the public otherwise had a right to access solely because of the potential political consequences of releasing it, that withholding could itself constitute—or appear to be— election interference,” she wrote in a Thursday night order requiring their release.
Spread out over four filings totaling 1,889 pages, the trove includes grand jury testimony, communications and other documents assembled by prosecutors.
The exhibits support a 165-page brief filed by Smith earlier this month breaking down his case against Trump in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that determined former president’s retain broad immunity from criminal prosecution for many of their core official actions.
Prosecutors argue that Trump’s effort to thwart the transfer of power was almost entirely carried out as a private citizen. Trump’s attorneys are due to respond in the days following November’s presidential election.
Chutkan will review both sets of filings to determine how the case against Trump may proceed.
DEVELOPING
English (US) ·