'Most evil person': Trump slams judge for unsealing new evidence in 2020 election interference case

As the race for the White House intensifies, former US President Donald Trump lashed out against the judge overseeing the 2020 election interference case for unsealing more evidence presented by special counsel Jack Smith. Trump referred to District Judge Tanya Chutkan as the “most evil person” for publishing evidence just weeks before the November polls.

He went on to state that Judge Chutkan’s decision to reject his team’s request to delay the release of the evidence can amount to “election interference” as well. The 1,889-page document comprises four volumes of an appendix that Smith’s prosecutors filed alongside a motion against presidential immunity that was unveiled earlier this month.

It is pertinent to note that Judge Chutkan ordered the unsealing of the redacted appendix last week but delayed the release to give Trump time to contest her decision. The new document in question included transcripts of court hearings, interviews and speeches related to the case, as well as additional source material.

Trump lashes out

While speaking on the matter on Friday during a podcast with right-wing media personality Dan Bongino, Trump slammed Judge Chutkan and went on to call Smith “a sick puppy”.

Meanwhile, Judge Chutkan defended her decision to unseal the document insisting that if she kept the evidence hidden, it could itself have been seen as election 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 the ruling. It is pertinent to note that the new evidence is part of a motion-filled by Smith last month.

The indictment also centers around the January 6 Capitol riots as the prosecutors accused Trump of illegally conspiring to overturn his election defeat three months earlier to Joe Biden. However, after the Supreme Court ruled this summer that Trump cannot be prosecuted for official acts carried out as president, Smith was forced to change his approach. In the latest motion, the special counsel argued that Trump committed crimes while still in office, but as a private citizen.

While the latest release of the evidence is considered significant, many of the documents comprise of publicly available information, including voting tabulations and tweets from Trump and others connected to the case. Interestingly, the prosecutors also included Trump’s speech near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, in which he told a crowd of supporters that he won the election and yelled “we’re going to the Capitol.”

With inputs from agencies.