Judge agrees to unseal further filings from Jan. 6 case as Trump signals challenge

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Thursday agreed to unseal further filings from Special Counsel Jack Smith laying out his election interference case against former President Trump, something Trump's attorneys signaled they plan to challenge.

Chutkan agreed to a request from Smith to unseal exhibits that accompany his 180-page brief asserting that prosecutors can still bring much of their Jan. 6 case against Trump in the wake of a Supreme Court decision granting former presidents broad criminal immunity. 

Smith argues Trump’s efforts to thwart the transfer of power were the unlawful actions of a private citizen, not of a president.

Chutkan granted Smith’s motion to post redacted versions of the exhibits, something that could include grand jury transcripts, texts and other evidence assembled by prosecutors.

“The court determines that the Government’s proposed redactions to the Appendix are appropriate, and that Defendant’s blanket objections to further unsealing are without merit. As the court has stated previously, ‘Defendant’s concern with the political consequences of these proceedings’ is not a cognizable legal prejudice,” she wrote.

Trump opposed both the unsealing of Smith’s motion as well as the accompanying evidence.

“There should be no further disclosures at this time of the so-called ‘evidence’ that the Special Counsel’s Office has unlawfully cherry-picked and mischaracterized—during early voting in the 2024 Presidential election,” Trump’s team wrote in an earlier filing on Thursday.

But Chutkan also agreed to stay her ruling for seven days after an earlier motion from Trump’s legal team asked for additional time “so that President Trump can evaluate litigation options relating to the decision.”

A motion to reconsider or an appeal of Chutkan’s decision would be sure to eat up more time in a case already delayed by Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court and other efforts.

Trump already has until Nov. 7 – just days after the election – to file his own response to Smith’s 180-page brief with one of his own that will make his case for why the charges should be dropped after the Supreme Court’s decision.

It’s unclear just how much information might be gleaned from the appendix Smith wishes to unseal. His arguments for proceeding in the case did include some new evidence not yet uncovered by reporters or the now-disbanded Jan. 6 committee, including details from contemporaneous notes former Vice President Mike Pence took while speaking with Trump.