The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s election subversion case released a heavily redacted trove of evidence on Friday used by Special Counsel Jack Smith to bring charges against the former US president.
Hundreds of the 1,889 pages were blank, marked “sealed”, and the bulk of the visible material – social media posts by Trump, transcripts and memos – had already been publicly disclosed previously.
District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers to keep the documents under wraps until November 14 – nine days after the US presidential election in which Trump is once again the Republican candidate.
In arguing against the release of the material, Trump’s lawyers said it could present a “concerning appearance of election interference” and taint the jury pool.
Chutkan said that while there is “undoubtedly a public interest in courts not inserting themselves into elections”, withholding the documents could also be construed as election 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 said.
