Trump Files Last-Ditch Effort To Keep Bombshell Jack Smith Filing Secret Until After Election

Topline

Former President Donald Trump doesn’t want the rest of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s bombshell filing in his federal election case to come out before Election Day—after the document featured damaging revelations about Trump’s post-2020 election efforts—with Trump’s lawyers asking Thursday for an appendix to the filing to stay under wraps for another month.

Key Facts

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is due to release a redacted version of the appendix to Smith’s filing on Thursday, but Trump’s attorneys requested that the judge keep the appendix under seal until Nov. 14.

Smith’s filing details the government’s case against Trump and argues the case doesn’t conflict with the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, and the appendix would include full versions of witness interviews and other evidence that are only excerpted in the main filing.

Trump’s lawyers already asked for the appendix to be kept private for a “reasonable period of time” so that the ex-president could explore potential legal options to keep it hidden, resulting in Chutkan issuing a seven day pause which is set to expire Thursday.

Trump argued Thursday Chutkan should delay its release again until Nov. 14—after the election—so that it can come out at the same time as Trump’s own filing responding to Smith’s allegations against him.

Releasing the appendix now during early voting “creates a concerning appearance of election interference,” Trump’s lawyers claimed, arguing that keeping the filing private until after the election “would promote public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings and a court’s duty to remain apolitical.”

Releasing Smith’s appendix alongside Trump’s own filing would also mean the press would cover both and give a “more balanced picture” of the case, Trump’s lawyers claimed, alleging releasing Smith’s filing first would give potential jurors “a skewed, one-sided, and inaccurate picture of this case.”

What To Watch For

Chutkan has not yet ruled on Trump’s request, and it’s unclear when she will or when the redacted appendix could be released. The judge has previously shot down Trump’s legal arguments against Smith’s filing, writing in an order before the first part was publicly released that his lawyers’ claims are “focus[ed]

on political rhetoric rather than addressing the legal issues at hand” and are “unbefitting of experienced defense counsel.”

What We Don’t Know

What will actually be made public in the redacted version of the appendix. While the first part of the filing was largely unredacted other than covering up names of witnesses, Smith has previously said prosecutors want to release a version of the appendix in which “non-public Sensitive Materials” are redacted “in their entirety.”

What Does The Jack Smith Filing Say?

Smith’s filing laying out the case against Trump broadly accuses the ex-president of pushing fraud claims about the 2020 election despite knowing they were false. “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell,” the filing alleges Trump told his family after the election, also claiming Trump told one of his associates that “the details” of his post-election lawsuits “don’t matter” after the associate said his fraud claims wouldn’t hold up in court. Trump hired attorney Rudy Giuliani to lead his post-election legal team because he knew he “was willing to falsely claim victory and spread knowingly false claims of election fraud,” prosecutors alleged, claiming Trump and his allies made up their fraud claims “out of whole cloth.” Trump’s allies also didn’t actually believe the fraud claims they were peddling, Smith claims, quoting Trump advisor Jason Miller as saying, “It’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy s–t beamed down from the mothership.” The filing additionally outlines Trump’s activities on Jan. 6 as his supporters were attacking the Capitol, alleging Trump was by himself in the White House dining room looking at Twitter as the riot played out. Trump had soured on then-Vice President Mike Pence after unsuccessfully pressuring him to refuse to certify the vote count, and prosecutors allege that when an aide told Trump that Pence had to be moved to a secure location due to the rioters, the ex-president responded, “So what?”

Key Background

Trump faces four felony charges in the federal election case accusing him of acting unlawfully when he tried to overturn the 2020 election, with prosecutors charging him with conspiracy to defraud, obstruction and conspiracy against rights. The efforts to obscure Smith’s filing marks the latest tussle in the drawn-out litigation, which was put on hold for months as the Supreme Court considered giving Trump immunity. The conservative-leaning court ruled Trump and other ex-presidents cannot be prosecuted based on their “official acts” in office but can be charged based on any unofficial acts outside the scope of their duties. Justices left it up to Chutkan to determine which charges can move forward based on the Supreme Court’s ruling and Smith’s filing laying out the government’s case. Prosecutors allege their indictment against Trump is in line with the ruling because Trump was acting as a political candidate and private citizen in his efforts to challenge the election, rather than as president. The debate over Trump’s immunity has indefinitely postponed the case from going to trial, which was initially slated to happen in March. If Trump is elected, he is expected to appoint Justice Department officials who would drop the charges against him.

Further Reading