The judge overseeing the 2020 election fraud case involving former President Donald Trump released 1,900 pages of heavily redacted documents containing evidence that Special Counsel Jack Smith piled together if the case ever goes to trial.
The documents were initially unsealed on Friday to help U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan determine what information can be used in the trial that relates to the certification of the 2020 election. This includes the text of Trump’s rally speech and his phone call with Georgia officials, during which he, critics say, urged them to “find” votes to overturn the election. Actual election certificates showing Trump won the presidential election that year were also released, as well as reviews from the 45th president’s then-Twitter activity from the run-up to Election Day.
One of the transcripts includes text from an interview with Trump’s then-valet, which the Jan. 6 committee conducted. According to the document, the valet argued the former president’s speech was “cut off” on television because his supporters were becoming violent. The valet then said he retrieved a Diet Coke for Trump as he watched his supporters become so-called irate.
While most portions of the documents were unavailable, a transcript of Trump's video statement on January 6, 2021, in which he urged his supporters to go home, telling them “We love you” and “You’re very special,” was also included.
Chutakan released the documents despite Trump’s objections to withhold the information until after the 2024 election. However, she argued that the former president’s urgency in protecting the information is his own form of interference.
“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,” she wrote in an order.
Other information includes passages from former Vice President Mike Pence’s book and testimony from multiple witnesses to the House committee that launched an investigation against the Jan. 6 protests.
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