A federal judge on Thursday approved the release of redacted evidence against Donald Trump that support a brief unsealed this month in his federal election case, but allowed the former president seven days to attempt to block the disclosure.
In her order, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, said that prosecutors’ suggested redactions to the brief’s appendix “are appropriate, and that Defendant’s blanket objections to further unsealing are without merit.”
Trump’s attorneys had argued against “further disclosures” of any part of an appendix, which accompanied an 165-page brief special counsel Jack Smith’s team that was unsealed this month, as early voting gets underway in the presidential election.
Prosecutors had previously argued that the appendix should be publicly released with proposed redactions.
Trump’s attorneys had requested in their opposition that the court stay any decision to release the documents to allow Trump the chance to “evaluate litigation options relating to the decision.”
An attorney for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday night about whether his legal team planned to take further action to block the disclosure.
Prosecutors from Smith’s office had alleged in their brief that Trump “resorted to crimes” to remain in office after his election loss four years ago and arguing that his actions then did not entail official conduct as Trump’s team has contended.
The special counsel’s office declined to comment.
They had previously rebuffed assertions from Trump’s attorneys that the government was “motivated by improper political considerations.”
“The Special Counsel’s mandate is to uphold the law. It has no role or interest in partisan politics and has faithfully executed its prosecutorial duties in this case,” they wrote in an Oct. 1 filing.
Trump and his attorneys have repeatedly tried to delay court proceedings in connection with the indictments he faces until after next month’s election.
The federal election case was upended after the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, which found that Trump has some protection from prosecution related to official acts. No trial date has been set.
Trump’s indictment in Georgia, which is also linked to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, also won’t go to trial before November. The judge overseeing that case tossed out three of the initial 41 counts last month, including two brought against Trump.
Separately, Trump successfully postponed sentencing in his hush money case in New York. The judge overseeing that case last month granted his request to further postpone his sentencing hearing until after Election Day. A jury in the hush money trial had convicted Trump of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with a payment to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The sentencing, now set for Nov. 26, has been repeatedly delayed from the original July 11 date.
