Judge in election interference case authorizes release of report with new evidence against Trump

The judge in the election interference case against Donald Trump authorized the release of a report by prosecutor Jack Smith with new evidence against the former president. Less than a month before the presidential election, Tanya Chutkan rejected the appeal by the Republican's legal team and ordered the filing be made public on Friday.

It is prosecutor Smith's second case against Trump for allegedly trying to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Chutkan had initially authorized the release of the report, but Trump's lawyers made a filing arguing that the release should be delayed until after the presidential 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," the judge wrote in her ruling.

"As a result, it is in fact Defendant's requested relief that risks undermining that public interest: 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 —o r appear to be — election interference," she added.

"The court will therefore continue to keep political considerations out of its decision-making, rather than incorporating them as Defendant requests," Chutkan ruled.

Trump's lawyers issued a statement reacting to the judge's decision. They wrote that while the "stay will not eliminate the harms President Trump identified in his earlier opposition filings, certain harms will be mitigated."

"For example, if the Court immediately releases the Special Counsel's selected documents, prospective jurors will be left with a biased, one-sided, and inaccurate picture of this case," they added.

Jack Smith's new indictment against Donald Trump

After seeing his first attempt thwarted, Smith drafted the new indictment almost the same as the previous one. However, it was limited to avoid clashing with the latest Supreme Court ruling, which ruled that the Republican enjoyed some presidential immunity.

The special prosecutor then modified the indictment to avoid involving the Department of Justice and other government officials.

In turn, he retained almost all of the charges as his previous version: conspiracy to "impair, obstruct and nullify" the legitimate government function of certifying an election, conspiracy to obstruct and impede the Electoral College proceedings on January 6, and conspiracy against the right to have one's vote counted.