More evidence released in Trump election subversion case

By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Friday released more evidence collected by prosecutors in the federal criminal case accusing former President Donald Trump of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

The hundreds of pages, many of which were blanked out and marked “sealed,” contain material referenced in a sweeping court filing by special counsel Jack Smith released earlier this month that argues that Trump is the Republican presidential nominee in this year’s election is not immune to the other allegations in this case.

The documents unsealed on Friday contained excerpts from interviews conducted as part of the official congressional investigation into the attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The witnesses’ names were redacted, but some were identified by matching them with other known events. For example, former Attorney General William Barr describes being summoned to the White House and expecting to be fired after an interview in which he said the election was not marred by large-scale voter fraud.

A few days after that interview, Trump announced on social media that Barr had resigned.

Smith’s court filings contained few details that had not already been made public, but provided a detailed account of Trump’s efforts to stay in power after his election loss, including descriptions of Trump’s conversations with family members and aides.

A compilation of the evidence was attached to Smith’s file, but its release was delayed to give the former president time to object.

Much of the evidence, including reports of witness interviews, transcripts of grand jury testimony and records obtained through search warrants, was redacted from the release.

Trump’s lawyers argued that no material should be released before the November 5 election and successfully delayed its release for a week. His defense team ultimately decided not to appeal U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s decision to release redacted versions of the documents.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges accusing him of a multi-part conspiracy to obstruct the process of collecting and certifying the results of his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

The case was slowed by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that former presidents enjoy broad immunity for official actions while in office. It won’t go to court before the election, when Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump has argued that the entire case should be dismissed because of the Supreme Court’s decision. If Trump wins in November, experts say he will order the US Justice Department to drop the case.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)