Shocking: Judge Sides with Special Counsel Ordering Public Release of New Evidence in Trump Case Just Weeks Before the Election

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s political prosecution of President Donald Trump has a major development. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the Jan. 6 federal election interference case, allowed more than 1,800 pages of new evidence to be unsealed today. Will this new evidence impact the 2024 presidential election?

Trump maintains that this unsealing is blatant election interference just weeks before the election. However, the judge’s announcement comes with an interesting twist. ABC News reports:

“There is undoubtedly a public interest in courts not inserting themselves into elections, or appearing to do so. But litigation’s incidental effects on politics are not the same as a court’s intentional interference with them,” Chutkan wrote in her order. “As a result, 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.”

In other words, the judge is using Trump’s claims of election interference against him. She argues that not unsealing the 1,800 pages of documents would be election interference because the public deserves to see all the evidence – even if most of it involves just accusations.

But this circular reasoning doesn’t pass the smell test. When the judge initially allowed the evidence to be unsealed a couple of weeks ago (after Smith returned with his superseding indictment against Trump), we noted that two of the four charges have already been dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court. And most of the new evidence was simply hearsay regarding private interactions between Trump and his advisers.

The reason Smith is presenting this new so-called evidence on a Friday is to interfere with the election. With a little more than two weeks until Election Day, Smith wants Trump’s name in the press all weekend for the wrong reasons.

ACLJ Senior Counsel and Director of Policy Harry Hutchison criticized the judge’s decision to unseal the evidence just days before an election:

Keep in mind that the judge in the election interference case, Judge Chutkan, is releasing additional, unredacted appendices days before the election. But we should note that no proven evidence is being released; only allegations are being released. We are only seeing one side of the equation, and the purpose of this release is to damage Trump’s campaign, which is precisely why Trump and his legal team opposed it.

This is lawfare at its worst. We need better regulations in our judicial system to keep the courts from being weaponized against political opponents – especially during an election season.

The ACLJ is fighting right now to defend election integrity. We are about to file a critical amicus brief to stop the Biden-Harris Administration from allowing illegal immigrants to vote in Virginia. You can join our efforts to defend election integrity by checking out our election integrity page and signing our petition.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included a full analysis of the judge’s outrageous decision to unseal additional evidence in Trump’s Jan. 6 federal election case. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reacted to Israel taking out the mastermind of Hamas’ October 7 attack. We also gave an important update on our work to save Christian Shahzad Masih from Pakistan’s death row.

Watch the full broadcast below: