by Katelynn Richardson
Special counsel Jack Smith should not release more evidence in his case against former President Donald Trump during early voting, defense attorneys told the judge in a filing Thursday.
Allowing Smith to release the appendix attached to his motion on presidential immunity, which Judge Tanya Chutkan already allowed Smith to file on the public docket, would be a continuation of “overt and inappropriate election interference,” Trump’s attorneys argued.
“There should be no further disclosures at this time of the so called ‘evidence’ that the Special Counsel’s Office has unlawfully cherry-picked and mischaracterized—during early voting in the 2024 Presidential election—in connection with an improper Presidential immunity filing that has no basis in criminal procedure or judicial precedent,” his attorneys wrote. “President Trump maintains his objections … based on overt and inappropriate election interference, violations of longstanding DOJ policy, the Office’s previous safety-related representations in this District and the Southern District of Florida, grand jury secrecy, and the influence on potential witnesses and jurors of prejudicial pretrial publicity—which predictably followed from the filing of the redacted ‘Motion for Immunity Determinations.’”
Chutkan rejected the request Thursday, stating the objections were “without merit.” She did put her decision on hold for seven days to allow Trump to “evaluate litigation options.”
Prosecutors previously indicated their appendix would redact “non-public Sensitive Materials in their entirety.”
“And the Government also has proposed limited redactions to some publicly-available materials, such as the defendant’s Tweets, when such material identifies or targets an individual who—because of their status as a potential witness or involvement in underlying events—may be susceptible to threats or harassment, or may otherwise suffer a chilling effect on their trial testimony,” prosecutors wrote in the Sept. 27 filing.
Over objections from Trump’s attorneys, Chutkan released a redacted version of Smith’s motion detailing his evidence against Trump on Oct. 2. In the motion, prosecutors explained why they believe the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling does not apply to the allegations in the government’s superseding indictment against Trump.
Chutkan has so far rejected arguments from Trump’s attorneys that allowing Smith to file on the public docket would amount to election interference. She criticized the attorneys for “focusing on political rhetoric rather than addressing the legal issues at hand” in an Oct. 2 order, writing there is “no support” for their claims the government is driven by partisan bias.
“Not only is that focus unresponsive and unhelpful to the court, but it is also unbefitting of experienced defense counsel and undermining of the judicial proceedings in this case,” she wrote.
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Katelynn Richardson is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
