Trump campaign slams ‘witch hunt’ after Jack Smith court docs released less than 3 weeks before election
The judge in former President Trump’s federal election interference case on Friday made public more documents from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the former president just weeks before the 2024 election.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered on Thursday night that additional documents be made public. The hundreds of pages of documents are Smith’s appendix of exhibits in the fight over whether Trump has a level of presidential immunity that negates the charges against him.
“Radical Democrats are hell-bent on interfering in the presidential election on behalf of Lyin’ Kamala Harris,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital. “With just over two weeks until Election Day, President Trump is dominating this race and Crazed Liberals throughout the Deep State are freaking out.”
Cheung added, “As mandated by the Supreme Court’s historic decision on Presidential Immunity and other vital jurisprudence, this entire case is a sham and a partisan, Unconstitutional Witch Hunt that should be dismissed entirely — as should ALL of the remaining Democrat hoaxes.”
JUDGE UNSEALS KEY FILING IN SPECIAL COUNSEL’S ELECTION CASE AGAINST TRUMP
Former President Trump, left, and Special Counsel Jack Smith. (Getty Images)
The majority of pages released to the public remain under seal and are not viewable by the public. Much of the unsealed material has been previously released in some form, including transcripts by the House Select Committee on Jan. 6. Other documents include old Trump campaign press releases, fundraising emails, White House press conference transcripts and news articles.
In the order to release the documents, Chutkan cited Trump’s claim that the “asymmetric release of charged allegations and related documents during early voting creates a concerning appearance of election interference.”
According to the judge, while there is a public interest for courts to avoid involving themselves in elections, “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,” she argued.
A court sketch depicts former President Trump’s legal representation appearing before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 11, 2023. (William J. Hennessy Jr.)
She added that the court would continue keeping political considerations out of decisions, despite the defense’s request.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges brought against him by Smith.
The Supreme Court earlier this year ruled that a president is immune from prosecution for official acts.
Smith was then required to file another indictment against Trump, revising the charges in an effort to navigate the Supreme Court ruling. The new indictment kept the prior criminal charges but narrowed and reframed the allegations against Trump after the high court’s ruling that gave broad immunity to former presidents.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in the new indictment as well.
Former President Trump and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File/United States Courts)
In a filing unsealed earlier this month, Smith outlines a “factual proffer,” alleging Trump “resorted to crimes to try to stay in office” after losing the 2020 presidential election.
“With private co-conspirators, the defendant launched a series of increasingly desperate plans to overturn the legitimate election results in seven states that he had lost — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin,” Smith wrote.
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Smith claims that the “throughline of these efforts was deceit,” claiming Trump and co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy to interfere with the federal government function by which the nation collects and counts election results, which is set forth in the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act (ECA); a conspiracy to obstruct the official proceeding in which Congress certifies the legitimate results of the presidential election; and a conspiracy against the rights of millions of Americans to vote and have their votes counted.”
Fox News’ Julia Johnson, Jake Gibson, David Spunt and Bill Mears contributed to this report.
