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U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan denied President Donald Trump’s request on Thursday to delay the publication of evidence in his Jan. 6 case.
Chuktan ruled that the request by Trump’s lawyers did not meet the facts necessary to keep the information sealed.
“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 … 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.
“The court will therefore continue to keep political considerations out of its decision-making, rather than incorporating them as Defendant requests,” she added.
Trump’s legal team argued that releasing the information before the election would create the appearance of election interference. Chutkan denied the concern.
Chutkan ordered special counsel Jack Smith’s four-part appendix to be released Friday. Smith argues Trump should still be prosecuted despite the Supreme Court’s July decision that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for most presidential actions.
The appendix could include information and quotations from public material though information from “nonpublic sources such as grand jury transcripts, witness interview reports and sealed search warrant returns would likely remain redacted.”
The case was returned to the lower courts to determine whether the accusations related to Smith’s charges against Trump were official or unofficial.
Trump’s attorneys wrote in their opposition that while the “stay will not eliminate the harms President Trump identified in his prior opposition filings, … certain harms will be mitigated.”
“For example, if the Court immediately releases the Special Counsel’s cherry-picked documents, potential jurors will be left with a skewed, one-sided, and inaccurate picture of this case,” they wrote.
No trial date has been set. The immunity litigation is expected to continue until at least December. Any ruling is likely to return to the Supreme Court. If Trump wins the election, the case could end without reaching trial.