U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan will allow Special Counsel Jack Smith to present a 180-page “oversized” brief filled with evidence against former President Donald Trump in the delayed — but still extant — criminal election interference case against the Republican presidential nominee in Washington, D.C.
Smith has been forced to rework the case after the Supreme Court handed down its decision granting presidential immunity concerning official acts.
As a result, Smith’s request — granted by Chutkan — to submit a fulsome document detailing evidence in the case is ostensibly made to comply with to the SCOTUS order to determine which charges can be sustained in light of the immunity decision — with its classification of “official acts” being open to some interpretation.
But the brief is clearly also a chance to air some of the evidence that timely due process — without substantial delays Trump’s lawyers have sought and won — would have already allowed the public to see. Notably, before the election in November.
Chutkan wrote, mindful of that timing, that “what needs to happen before or shouldn’t happen before the election is not relevant here.” And the ruling asserts that “the Defendant’s concern with the political consequences of these proceedings does not bear on the pretrial schedule.”
[Chutkan essentially shot down the Trump legal team’s attempt to portray Smith’s release of evidence as “incredibly unfair in the sense that they’re able to put in the public record at this very sensitive time in our nation’s history.”]
The brief will be under seal, but it’s expected that a redacted version will be released soon after submission.
Calling the expansive brief a “bombshell” Meidas News reports it “will contain a detailed factual proffer, along with numerous exhibits related to Trump’s alleged conduct.”
