The ongoing trial in Washington, D.C. of former President Trump instigated by special council Jack Smith is continuing to proceed as the judge hostile to Trump has refused to recuse herself and is still presiding.
Smith’s indictment charges Trump with four felonies charges, allegedly for his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
The case itself is unraveling as proof is surfacing as to discrepancies in ballots in several locations during that election, and the action this week by the new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Johnson made good this week on his promise to release ALL the non-sensitive Jan 6 footage for public viewing. 40,000 hours of the footage was released this week, with 4,000 hours remaining to be uploaded, reportedly.
As the footage release unfolds, Trump’s lawyers have made a motion to leave out certain allegations toward the former president of the events at the Capitol that day from the trial.
Judge Tanya Chutkan is presiding in the election crimes case against Trump brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, and has issued an order in which she denied Trump’s motion “to Strike Inflammatory Allegations From the Indictment.”
On Friday Federal District Judge Chutkan actually pointed the finger at former President Donald Trump in a blistering order denying a motion to strike mentions of January 6 from his election cromes trial.
Mediate reports that in concluding her order, Judge Chutkan threw in an aside about Trump’s own “inflammatory and unsupported accusations” against President Joe Biden, and referenced the potential for prejudice “generated by the defendant”:
Defendant’s sixteen-page Reply In Support of the Motion, despite making numerous inflammatory and unsupported accusations of its own, see, e.g., ECF No. 156 at 7 (“President Biden directed the Department of Justice to prosecute his leading opponent for the presidency through a calculated leak to the New York Times.”), devotes only a single paragraph to the prejudice requirement.
His sole argument is that even if the jury does not receive a copy of the indictment, “[v]oluminous evidence exists here that the jury pool has been, and continues to be, exposed to the Indictment and its inflammatory and prejudicial allegations, through media coverage relating to the case.” Id. at 16. But Defendant fails to cite even one example of that evidence. In any event, the voir dire process will allow the court to examine and address the effects that pretrial publicity, including any generated by Defendant, has had on the impartiality of potential jurors.
When trial begins, the court will also take steps to screen from the jury any irrelevant and prejudicial material that either party seeks to introduce. Moreover, before the jurors deliberate, the court will instruct them on the actual charges and the evidence they may consider in their deliberations. See United States v. Empire Bulkers Ltd., 583 F. Supp. 3d 746, 760 (E.D. La. 2022) (providing that jury instructions would “make clear to [jurors] what defendants are actually charged with” and “the verdict form will not ask the jury to consider issues for which defendants have not been charged”). This too will prevent “potential prejudice from the alleged surplusage.”
For these reasons, Defendant’s Motion to Strike Inflammatory Allegations from the Indictment, ECF No. 115, is hereby DENIED.
Trump was asking for specific “imflammatory” allegations against him be removed from the mentions of the Jan 6 events, Washington Examiner reports. Trump’s attorneys argued in a late-October court filing to Chutkin that she should remove references to acts committed by rioters form Smith’s indictment.
Jeudge Chutkin wrote, “Regardess of whether the allegations at issue are relevant, Defendant has not satisfied his burden to clearly show that they are prejudicial.”
Regardless of whether the allegations at issue are relevant.
She continued, “He argues that sharing the allegations with the jury may result in prejudice at his trial ‘because members of the jury may wrongfully impute fault [to him]’ for the actions at the Capitol on January 6,” the Examiner reports.
Chutkin states that the jury will not be given a copy of the indictment which is full of references to the crowd on Jan 6 in extremely subjective language suggesting Trump is responsible for the actions of others.
For instance, the indictment states a “large and angry crowd – including many individuals whom [Trump] had deceived into believing the Vice President could and might change the election results – violently attacked the Capitol and halted the proceeding.”
Trump’s request points out that the jury pool “has been and continues to be exposed to the Indictmentand its inflammatory and prejudicial allegations through media coverage relating to the case.”
Chutkin responded that Trump’s attorneys have failed to cite “even one example of that evidence.” In other words, she expects Trump to prove the jury pool is tainted by the indictment before the trial begins.
Trump had requested that Judge Chutkin recuse herself within days of the August 1 indictment, but Chutkin refused officially to recuse in September.
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