The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case on Friday released a heavily redacted document that offers a small glimpse of the evidence prosecutors might present if the case goes to trial. The mountain was revealed.
The roughly 1,900 pages of documents collected by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team were originally published by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in response to a July Supreme Court opinion that gave former presidents broad immunity for acts of official conduct. It was filed under seal to help determine whether such claims can proceed to trial. Take office.
The information in the redacted version published Friday is largely material that had already been made public, including screenshots of President Trump’s social media posts about the 2020 election and a transcript of his Jan. 6 video statement. It seemed like there was. In 2021, he told the rioters who stormed the Capitol to go home, but added: “We love you” and “You are so special.”
The overwhelming majority of pages published Friday were whitewashed. The redacted files are believed to include records of grand jury testimony that are kept secret due to grand jury secrecy rules.
Other information available to the public includes passages from former Vice President Mike Pence’s book, excerpts of testimony provided by multiple witnesses to the House committee investigating the January 6 riot, and election officials in Georgia. This includes records of President Trump’s phone calls in which he pressured Trump to “find” enough information. The votes were gathered to reverse his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the state.
Other documents include fundraising emails from the Trump campaign in 2020 and a January letter in which Pence told Congress he could not assert “unilateral authority to determine which electors should or should not be counted.” It also includes the letter of the 6th.
The application was filed as a series of appendices to a 165-page brief unsealed this month in which prosecutors proposed new evidence against Trump to support their argument that the former president does not qualify for immunity from prosecution. disclosed.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers had opposed the release of the filing so close to next month’s presidential election, but Mr. Chutkan on Thursday rejected their lawyers’ request to delay the release of the documents until after the election. He said it was inappropriate to consider the political calendar.
