Delay DENIED!

Judge Chutkan has DENIED Trump's motion to delay the release of the evidence appendix against him.

I rarely make two posts in one day, but this ruling came quick! Just as soon as Donald requested a delay of the unsealing of Jack Smith’s immunity brief appendix, Judge Chutkan has denied it.

You’ll recall Jack Smith’s immunity brief came in two parts: the “motion”, and the “appendix.” The motion was the 165 page beast that I read out loud in five parts in the Jack podcast feed. The appendix is the gigantic trove of evidence, witness interviews, documents from other government agencies, 302s, and the like. Jack Smith handed his recommended redactions to Judge Chutkan, she approved them, Trump opposed them, and then today, asked to delay its unsealing until after the election.

From this morning, here’s what I thought this ruling might say:

“Sorry. You asked to respond after the election. If you wanted to respond before the election, you could have kept your original due date of October 17th. Besides, as this court as said before, the timing of the election plays no role in these proceedings.” Or something like that.

Here is what she has ruled:

Defendant’s request does not engage with the six relevant factors for sealing. Instead, he argues that keeping the Appendix under seal for another month will serve other interests. Ultimately, none of those arguments are persuasive.

Setting aside the oxymoronic proposition that the public’s understanding of this case will be enhanced by withholding information about it, any public debate about the issues in this case has no bearing on the court’s resolution of those issues. “Legal trials are not like elections, to be won through the use of the meeting-hall, the radio, and the newspaper.” And in any event, the court is not “limiting the public’s access to only one side,” Defendant is free to submit his legal arguments and factual proffers regarding immunity at any point before the November 7, 2024 deadline. This “is simply how litigation works: Each side presents arguments and proffers evidence on disputed issues.”

[Trump’s] objection is to the Appendix’s release “during a highly contested political campaign.” But a President’s “capacity . . . as a candidate for office” is “unofficial” and does not implicate the concerns animating his official immunity. Accordingly, the court has repeatedly stressed that “Defendant’s concern with the political consequences of these proceedings does not bear on the pretrial schedule.”

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. The court will therefore continue to keep political considerations out of its decision-making, rather than incorporating them as Defendant requests. Any argument about “what needs to happen before or shouldn’t happen before the election is not relevant here.”

For these reasons, Defendant’s Motion to Continue Stay of Order, ECF No. 264, is hereby DENIED. In a separate order on October 18, 2024, the court will lift the stay and direct the Clerk of the Court to docket the Appendix, with the Government’s proposed redactions.

I half expected her to end with “I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.”

You can read the ruling here.

~AG