Following an order from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, nearly 2,000 pages of redacted appendixes from special counsel Jack Smith’s brief were made public on Friday. These documents, related to Donald Trump’s federal election interference case, contain extensive redactions.
Trump had attempted to block the release of the appendixes, but his appeal was denied by Judge Chutkan on Thursday. The appendixes form part of Smith’s argument that Trump is not immune from criminal prosecution in this case.
This article has been updated from the previous version below:
The judge overseeing President Trump’s federal election interference case denied his last-minute attempt to block the release of more evidence gathered by special counsel Jack Smith. In an order issued late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that the redacted appendix from Smith’s recent immunity motion, containing additional details about Trump’s actions on and around January 6, would be made public on Friday.
Trump’s legal team had argued that the release of the evidence was politically motivated and intended to influence the 2024 presidential election. Chutkan pushed back against those claims, stating that the court’s duty to provide public access to information should not be hindered by concerns over political ramifications.
“There is undoubtedly a public interest in courts not inserting themselves into elections, or appearing to do so,” Chutkan wrote. “But litigation’s incidental effects on politics are not the same as a court’s intentional interference with them. It is in fact Defendant’s requested relief that risks undermining that public interest: 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.”
Chutkan criticized Trump’s legal team for presenting political arguments rather than addressing the legal factors relevant to sealing the evidence.
The president’s attorneys had requested that the court delay the release of the appendix until after the 2024 presidential election, proposing a new release date of November 14. They argued that releasing only the special counsel’s documents would create a biased portrayal of the case, potentially influencing jurors and public opinion.
“Although this stay will not eliminate the harms President Trump identified… certain harms will be mitigated,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “If the appendices are released simultaneously, at least some press outlets will attempt to report both sides of this case, reducing… the potential for irreversible prejudice.”
The evidence is set to be made public as scheduled on Friday.
