Court releases Trump evidence in election interference case, with parts still sealed

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington on Friday made public a mixture of miscellaneous documents filed as evidence by prosecutors in the criminal case against former President Donald Trump over his push to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.

Despite the disclosure, hundreds of pages in the new filing from Special Counsel John L. “Jack” Smith were blank and listed as remaining under seal, and many of the viewable pages included an array of information already available to the public, such as social media posts by Trump. In other places, dark redaction bars blocked some of the information.

Still, the documents released in four volumes underscore the breadth of the special counsel’s election interference case and the information on which prosecutors could rely in prosecuting the former president.

Among the pages released Friday were highlighted parts of a book written by Mike Pence that was published after his time as vice president. Highlighted portions of the book include Pence’s interactions with Trump in the weeks before Jan. 6, 2021, including a phone call during which Trump mentioned challenging the election results in the U.S. House of Representatives.

There were also portions of transcripts from congressional depositions of witnesses from the now-disbanded House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, Attack on the Capitol Building. Some pages of the Congressional Record were included, along with some transcripts of interviews, some Trump fundraising emails and more.

Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia released the filings over the objections of Trump’s legal team, who had asked the federal judge to delay the release of the evidence until after the election.

The unsealing comes less than three weeks away from Election Day. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, remain locked in a tight race, which is expected to be decided by several swing states.

Earlier this month, Chutkan made more than 100 pages of allegations in the case public, which amounted to the most complete argument yet from Smith as his office prosecutes Trump for an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

That filing included new details about the former president’s efforts to disrupt vote-counting in states he lost, arrange for false slates of electors to be presented to Congress and foment the January 2021 attack on the Capitol. The filing was part of a court fight over whether the presidency makes the former president immune to the charges.