The federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 criminal case has given him a week to determine whether to appeal a decision she made Thursday to unseal a court filing from special counsel Jack Smith, which his lawyers say amounts to election interference.
On Thursday afternoon, a filing from Trump requested that U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan keep an appendix from Smith’s Oct. 2 motion related to Trump’s immunity claims sealed from public view. However, Chutkan was unconvinced and shortly thereafter sided with Smith’s request to unseal the appendix, which may have contained more damaging information about Trump just before Election Day.
“As the court has stated previously, ‘Defendant’s concern with the political consequences of these proceedings’ is not a cognizable legal prejudice,” Chutkan wrote in her decision.
Her ruling means that the appendix may become public if higher courts affirm her unsealing.
The Washington Examiner contacted a representative for Trump.
Earlier this month, the judge allowed the unsealing of a 165-page motion in the case addressing how the special counsel’s office plans to move forward after the Supreme Court’s ruling in July on presidential immunity for official acts. It also alleged that Trump was aware he lost the 2020 election, dismissed lawyer Sidney Powell’s theories as “crazy,” and provided no evidence to support his claims of fraud, even fabricating numbers of noncitizen voters.
Trump, who has contested restrictions on what he can publicly say about the case, requested that the appendix to Smith’s motion remain sealed. His legal team had previously sought to delay responses to Smith’s motion until after the 2024 election, in which Trump is facing off against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump’s filing argued that Smith’s information was misleading and should be redacted just ahead of the Nov. 5 election. His lawyers suggested they would challenge any decision to release the evidence.
“If the Court releases additional information, President Trump respectfully asks for a stay to review legal options,” the filing said.
However, Chutkan, who has sided frequently with prosecutors, ultimately disagreed, noting Trump provided no legal reasons to object to the redactions. While she agreed to release a redacted version of the appendix, she granted Trump a seven-day stay to assess further legal actions.
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Chutkan is currently weighing how much of Smith’s reworked case since the immunity decision can be sustained, though any trial will not happen until well after the election.
Trump, who says he is not guilty to four charges he faces over an alleged attempt to subvert the 2020 election, is due to file a response to Smith’s arguments on Nov. 7, just two days after the election is over.
