In a court battle between Team Trump and special counsel Jack Smith, who is currently prosecuting two criminal cases against the former president, Smith alleges that Trump’s online remarks could influence the jury pool in his election interference indictment. According to CNN, prosecutors attempted to file court documents partially under seal and partially on the public docket, leading to complaints from Trump’s attorneys. They argue that they should have 14 days to respond before the documents are made public.
In response to this, Smith’s team filed a document stating, “Such a requirement would grind litigation in this case to a halt, which is particularly infeasible given the pressing matters before the court—including the defendant’s daily extrajudicial statements that threaten to prejudice the jury pool in this case, as described in the government’s motion.” These types of statements are exactly what prosecutors were concerned about, and US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the election subversion case, previously warned Trump’s team against making such remarks. The AP notes that as recently as Tuesday, Trump continued to post “provocative” remarks on his Truth Social site about both Smith and Chutkan.
The former president referred to Smith as a “deranged” prosecutor with “unchecked” aggression in a post on his Truth Social account. Regarding Chutkan, Trump reposted a newspaper article about her along with a sarcastic comment, “Oh, I’m sure she will be very fair.” It is worth noting that potential sanctions from Chutkan may not have a significant impact on Trump’s political standing. Writing for CNN, Stephen Collinson highlights the contrasting levels of legal and political accountability in this case. Collinson cites a recent poll showing that Trump has the support of 52% of GOP and Republican-leaning independent voters, putting him 34 points ahead of his nearest GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The majority of these voters believe that even if the charges in any of the four criminal cases against Trump are valid, they are not relevant to his fitness to be president. Additionally, 61% of them think that the charges against him are a result of partisan abuse of the judicial system, while only 14% believe that Trump is mostly responsible for his own troubles. Chutkan has instructed both Trump’s legal team and Smith’s team to file more legal briefs on whether and how the underlying Smith submission should be made public on the docket. This information comes from CNN. (Read more election interference indictment stories.)
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