Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Jack Smith’s ‘About-Face’ On Releasing Witness Testimony Driven By ‘Political Goals,’ Trump Attorneys Say

(Screen Capture/CSPAN)

Special counsel Jack Smith’s insistence on pushing witness testimony into the public’s view ahead of the election is “politically motivated,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in a filing Tuesday.

While prosecutors intend to redact names from the public version of a massive presidential immunity motion they filed under seal last week, they plan to leave “quotations or summaries of information from Sensitive Materials” intact. Trump’s attorneys told Judge Tanya Chutkan this represents an “about-face” from the position Smith took last year when requesting a protective order, where he argued disseminating materials now quoted in the filing would “adversely affect the fair administration of justice.”

“The true motivation driving the efforts by the Special Counsel’s Office to disseminate witness statements that they previously sought to lock down is as obvious as it is inappropriate,” Trump’s attorneys wrote. “The Office wants their politically motivated manifesto to be public, contrary to the Justice Manual and longstanding DOJ norms in cases not involving President Trump, in the final weeks of the 2024 Presidential election while early voting has already begun throughout the United States.”

Trump’s attorneys told Chutkan she should order prosecutors to redact information that could identify witnesses, such as references to titles and positions, and to explain why disclosing “voluminous purportedly sensitive witness statements will not pose risks to potential witnesses and unfairly prejudice the adjudication of this case.”

In July, the Supreme Court held that former presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts taken in office, specifically finding allegations about Trump’s interactions with DOJ officials included in the indictment were covered. The majority directed lower courts to sort out the application of presidential immunity to other allegations in the indictment.

Chutkan allowed Smith to file his brief on the issue first over repeated objections from Trump’s attorneys. Smith filed a superseding indictment in late August, which he believes is not covered by presidential immunity, to address the Supreme Court’s ruling.