On Thursday, former President Trump asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to keep evidence in his criminal case in D.C., sealed until after the election. He said that sharing the information would put him at a disadvantage.
It was suggested by Trump’s lawyers that the release be put off for one month, until November 14. This would give them time to gather their own evidence to go against whatever special counsel Jack Smith planned and share it at the same time as Smith.
“If the appendices are released at the same time, at least some news outlets will try to report on both sides of this case. This will lower (but not eliminate) the chance of irreversible bias,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “In the same way, witnesses will be less at risk because the public will have a more accurate picture of what they said and how it relates to this case.”
Some people are angry at Chutkan and Smith for leaking a lot of bad information about Trump so close to the election. An opinion piece in the New York Times by former federal lawyer Elie Honig said that Smith broke the Dept. of Justice’s policy manual, which he called a “internal bible,” by putting out information that could affect the election.
In their request, Trump’s lawyers made a similar case. They said that Smith’s filings could cause general bias and that “the unequal release of related documents during voting leads to election interference.”
The goal of Smith’s evidence was to allow the special counsel a chance to defend his charges of election involvement against Trump after the Supreme Court said that presidents can do some things in their role without being criminally charged for them.
Trump has the chance to send replies, which are due a couple of weeks after Smith’s. That’s a normal response time, but Chutkan set a tight schedule so that both parties had to turn in their papers quickly as the election came to a close. The judge has said many times that she doesn’t think the upcoming election has anything to do with the case.
