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| Smith, Trump, and Chutkan (AP) |
A federal judge yesterday unsealed almost 2,000 pages of evidence in Donald Trump's election-interference case, which is connected to the Jan. 6 attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol that led to at least six deaths and injuries to about 174 police officers.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, of the U.S. Court for the District of Columbia, made the ruling over arguments from Trump's lawyers, who claimed the decision could jeopardize witness safety and prejudice Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. But Chutkan sided with Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose prosecutorial team gathered the evidence and successfully argued a redacted version should be made public.
What is in the documents? CNN presents a description at this link. Sean O'Driscoll, senior crime and courts reporter for Newsweek, provides background on what likely will be remembered as one of the biggest court stories of the 2000s. Under the headline "Judge Chutkan Unseals Mountain of Donald Trump Evidence From Jack Smith," O'Driscoll writes:
Attorney General Bill Barr told Donald Trump that his claims of election fraud were "crazy," newly released prosecution documents show. Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed nearly 2,000 pages of evidence in the former president's election fraud case on Friday despite impassioned pleading from Trump's lawyers that it could damage his presidential campaign.
The testimony forms part of the evidence in Trump's election-fraud case, suggesting that Barr might be called as a witness, making him the first attorney general to testify against his president.
The prosecution documents show that at a meeting on November 23, 2020, Barr, who was then Trump's attorney general, told the president that his claims that Dominion voting machines were rigged were false.
Barr said he didn't go through all of Trump's claims but tried to focus on some of them.
"The one I specifically remember addressing was - were the Dominion machines," Barr told Representative Liz Cheney during a June 2022 meeting with the January 6 Committee.
"And I made the point that it was crazy for them to be wasting their time on this because they had been easily checked because they're tabulation machines, and all you have to do is compare the tabulation with the ballots, and I just thought it was crazy."
Did Barr's words have any impact on Trump? Apparently not, O'Driscoll reports:
Trump didn't listen to Barr's advice about the Dominion machines. He and his allies continued to create a false narrative that Dominion was fixing the election for Joe Biden.
What is at stake in the Trump case? O'Driscoll writes:
Barr said he didn't go through all of Trump's claims but tried to focus on some of them.
Did Barr's words have any impact on Trump? Apparently not, O'Driscoll reports:
Trump didn't listen to Barr's advice about the Dominion machines. He and his allies continued to create a false narrative that Dominion was fixing the election for Joe Biden.
The false allegations have led to multibillion-dollar lawsuits against key Trump allies. Fox News settled a Dominion lawsuit for nearly $800 million, while Dominion has outstanding claims against former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, businessman Mike Lindell and others.
In a filing on Thursday, Trump's lawyers warned release of the new evidence could also endanger potential witnesses, "especially in light of the extraordinary media coverage of this case and the Presidential election that is less than 3 weeks away—and also irreparably harm President Trump."
They also complained that Vice President Kamala Harris has been using the released evidence in YouTube ads for her presidential campaign.
"The incumbent Vice President began featuring the special counsel's brief in political advertisements for the 2024 Presidential Election. Kamala Harris, YouTube (Oct. 6, 2024)," the filing states.
On October 2, Chutkan unsealed a 165-page evidence brief in the case. That document made headlines around the world and contained fresh information about Trump's alleged activities during the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
It included his alleged indifference to the fate of then-Vice President Mike Pence as pro-Trump rioters hunted for him in the Capitol.
The document showed that Trump had tried to get support for a flawed report into alleged voter machine fraud in Michigan. The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee refused to publicize the report and told Trump the report was "f****** nuts."
On Friday, Chutkan unsealed a substantial appendix to the 165-page evidence brief. That appendix has never been seen by the public and contains further allegations against the former president.
Trump is accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights in connection with an alleged pressure campaign on state officials to reverse the 2020 election results.
How did Trump respond to Chutkan's ruling? Not well. Here is how the New York Sun put it, under the headline "Trump Calls Judge Chutkan an ‘Evil Person’ for Ordering Release of Jack Smith’s January 6 Evidence; Details emerge of how the 45th president sipped Diet Coke while mobs convulsed the Capitol."
Judge Tanya Chutkan’s release, with redactions, of 1,889 pages of evidence against President Trump assembled by Special Counsel Jack Smith comes 18 days before an election that appears set for a photographic finish.
The documents relate to January 6 and Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. They are contained in the appendix to Mr. Smith’s immunity opus, which weighed in at 165 pages. That report argues that the 45th president “must stand trial for his private crimes as would any other citizen.”
Judge Chutkan’s handling of the case has so incensed Trump that, in a podcast appearance with Dan Bongino on Friday, he ventured, “Now, it’s a terrible thing, what’s happening and the judge is, this judge is the most evil person.” He also called Mr. Smith a “sick puppy” and marveled that “it’s not even believable” that the material is emerging at this juncture.
This might come as news to Trump, but the words above are not likely to score points with a federal judge. If Trump doesn't know that hat by now, it's reasonable to assume he never will learn it. That, of course, is his problem, and we will leave it for him to solve another day.
The New York Sun passage above does raise this question: Is Trump smart enough to serve as president? Any semi-intelligent adult should know it's not wise to call a federal judge an "evil person," for no reason, in the midst of a case. Trump might have avoided using such damaging language if he had been capable of pausing to ask himself: "Is it possible I actually committed the crimes they've charged me with? Heck, I don't know a thing about the law that governs the stuff that took place on Jan. 6. I probably should have looked it up somehow, but that would make it appear like I did something wrong, and I don't want to look that way."
It would have been so easy to avoid calling Judge Chutkan an "evil person." But Trump could not manage to compose himself and keep the words from slipping out. And to put it bluntly, that is stupid -- and it shows that Trump does not have the intellectual or emotional heft to handle the job he is seeking. Americans have roughly three weeks to reach the correct conclusion -- that Trump can't cut it. And we can't afford to have a mentally unbalanced charlatan trying to learn on the job.
For more insights, an analysis from the Law & Crime blog is available here.
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