The judge in Donald Trump’s election-fraud case doesn’t care that the allegations may embarrass him in election season, a former prosecutor has said.
Judge Tanya Chutkan has ordered the release of yet more explosive evidence in the case, despite objections from Trump’s attorneys that it could be damaging at election time.
The Republican presidential nominee is accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights in connection with an alleged pressure campaign on state officials to reverse the 2020 election results.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and repeatedly said he is the victim of a political witch hunt. He has accused chief prosecutor Jack Smith of attempting to interfere in the 2024 presidential election by prosecuting him. Newsweek sought email comment from Trump’s attorney on Monday.
Writing in her legal blog, Civil Discourse, on Sunday, former federal prosecutor and frequent critic of Trump, Joyce Vance, noted that Chutkan has repeatedly told the Republican’s lawyers that his embarrassment is irrelevant to the case. “Judge Chutkan continues to show a total lack of interest in Trump’s argument that nothing can become public because of the election,” Vance wrote.
She noted that, in an order on October 10, Chutkan wrote, “Defendant’s concern with the political consequences of these proceedings is not a cognizable legal prejudice” that would merit sealing the evidence further. Chutkan granted prosecutors’ motion that an appendix of evidence in the case should be released. However, she has given Trump until October 17 to decide how to examine any legal options that might prevent the release.
Trump’s lawyers had requested “that the Court stay that determination for a reasonable period of time so that [he] can evaluate litigation options relating to the decision.”
On October 2, Chutkan unsealed a 165-page evidence brief in the case, against the wishes of Trump and his lawyers, who argued that it could damage the Republican nominee during the presidential election cycle.
The brief contained new information about Trump’s alleged activities during the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
The brief detailed his alleged indifference to the fate of Vice President Mike Pence as pro-Trump rioters hunted for him in the Capitol.
It added that Trump’s team had tried to garner support for a flawed report into alleged voter machine fraud in Michigan. The then-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee refused to publish the report and told Trump it was “f***ing nuts.”
The latest proposed release concerns a substantial appendix to the 165-page evidence brief. That appendix has never been seen by the public and contains further allegations against the former president.
Trump’s lawyers had requested that “no further disclosures” of “so-called evidence” be released because it had been “unlawfully cherry-picked and mischaracterized” by the prosecutor’s office.
From left: special counsel Jack Smith listens on; and former President Donald Trump speaks. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday gave the Republican’s lawyers until October 17 to file objections to Smith’s plans to release evidence.
Drew Angerer; ANGELA WEISS/AFP
