Judge Releases More Documents in Trump Election Interference Case

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is suffering another public relations fiasco after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., overseeing his criminal prosecution for election interference released more incriminating documents Friday.

Most of them are public documents and an appendix but a few of them portray Trump as being unconcerned about the riot he incited at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The documents are part of the evidence U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan is using to determine whether Trump should be immune from prosecution. He claims “absolute immunity” because of his status as president at the time.

The special prosecutor filed the documents to demonstrate Trump was acting in his personal capacity — not as president — and should therefore be criminally liable.

The documents show the rally was at least partly privately funded, rather than a government operation.

They also quote a Trump speechwriter saying the former president’s criticisms of the 2020 election were “political,” but not part of his official role as president.

One part of the unsealed documents consists of portions of an interview between an unidentified former White House employee and a congressional investigator discussing the Jan. 6 rally.

After returning to the White House, the employee says Trump asked why he was unable to watch his speech at the Ellipse, which included his statement that “we’re going to the Capitol.”

“‘Sir, they cut it off because they’re rioting down at the Capitol,’” the employee reportedly said. “And he was like, ‘What do you mean?'”

He said Trump watched the insurrection from a television set in the Oval Office while drinking a Diet Coke.

“I said, ‘It’s like they’re rioting down there at the Capitol,'” the employee said in the transcript. “And he was like, ‘Oh really?’ And then he was like, ‘All right, let’s go see.'”

The judge who released the additional heavily redacted 1,889 pages of prosecutorial documents said she was trying to protect the people’s right to know about the case. Trump’s attorneys had argued they should remain sealed until after next month’s election.

“There is undoubtedly a public interest in courts not inserting themselves into elections, or appearing to do so. But litigation’s incidental effects on politics are not the same as a court’s intentional interference with them,” Chutkan wrote in her order.

“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,” Chutkan wrote.

The assessment of political overtones also was mentioned by former Trump speechwriter Vincent Haley in a 2022 deposition. He said speechwriters were required to keep political speeches they wrote separate from official speeches in which the president discussed policy issues.

He said a transcript of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech circulated among White House staff “was styled ‘internal transcript.’ And my recollection is internal transcripts were political speeches.”

The “Stop the Steal” rally was organized by an outside group rather than White House staff, Haley said.

Other documents unsealed Friday showed the rally was funded largely by private conservative groups.

They included Turning Point Action, an organization that seeks to inspire young conservatives “through grassroots activism.” It used a $1 million budget to produce video content and run ads encouraging its supporters to attend the rally.

Another $500,000 was spent by a group founded by Donald Trump Jr., called “Save the U.S. Senate,” to “support attendance” at the rally and to inform the public about what it described as voter fraud during the 2020 election.

The conservative group Tea Party Express budgeted $400,000 for ads and a website to promote rally events.

Other documents, such as grand jury testimony and FBI interviews, remain sealed as the case moves toward a trial.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung referred to the criminal charges against the former president when he said that “this entire case is a sham and a partisan, unconstitutional witch hunt that should be dismissed entirely.”

Trump is charged with four felonies related to the 2020 election.

The case is U.S. v. Donald Trump in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

You can reach us at [email protected] and follow us on Facebook and X