Donald Trump urges further delay in release of Jack Smith's evidence

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump urged a federal judge on Thursday to delay the release of the trove of evidence submitted by special counsel Jack Smith against him until after the November 5 presidential election.

Trump is entangled in a tight race with the Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris. With the election only weeks away, the two candidates have been busy touring swing states in a bid to shore up votes.

“If the Court immediately releases the Special Counsel’s cherry-picked documents, potential jurors will be left with a skewed, one-sided, and inaccurate picture of this case,” wrote Trump’s attorneys in the filing submitted on Thursday morning. “Those same potential jurors may not see President Trump’s later responsive filing,” Politico reported.

A US district judge last week ordered the release of documents which Smith had filed in an effort to seek clarity if Trump can be immune from some of the numerous charges brought against him for allegedly subverting the US presidential election in 2020. Judge Tanya Chutkan, however, delayed the order by a week to allow Trump to seek legal recourse. Trump asked for further delay.

The filing was made by Trump just as the allowed seven days elapsed. Chutkan was infuriated, however, by Trump’s claim that releasing key details about the case would affect him politically – something Chutkan noted has no bearing on the administration of law and justice.

Trump, while in a heated election battle, is also trying to stop the release of a 165-page motion filed by Smith earlier this month, containing fresh details of the investigation of Trump’s efforts to overturn 2020 election results, something the special attorney has accumulated over the two years of the probe he led.

The former president has demanded that the documents should be released on November 14, the same day he plans to file a rebuttal to Smith’s submission.

“It is... essential that the public fully understand the arguments and documents on both sides of this momentous issue, and is not misled by one-sided submissions,” said the former president’s attorneys. “Indeed, limiting the public’s access to only one side of this important debate, even temporarily, would grievously harm its understanding of this case.”