Special Counsel says Trump’s comments risk biasing federal election subversion jury – Twin Cities

By ERIC TUCKER (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jack Smith, special counsel for the Justice Department, warned Tuesday that former President Donald Trump’s “daily” comments threaten to implicate a jury in Washington in the criminal case alleging he biased the results of the 2020 presidential election tilt.

Trump’s provocative remarks about both Smith’s team and US District Judge Tanya Chutkan – who is presiding over the case – have been a central issue since the indictment was filed last month. Prosecutors have repeatedly expressed concern about the impact of Trump’s social media posts, and Chutkan specifically cautioned against inflammatory statements by Trump that could intimidate witnesses or contaminate potential jurors.

Posts continued Tuesday both before and after the recent concern flared up, with Trump sharing a New York Post article about Chutkan on his platform Truth Social earlier in the day, openly mocking the idea that she was in his case might be fair. Later that evening, he published another post attacking Smith as a “crazy” prosecutor with “uncontrolled and insane aggression.”

Tuesday’s Justice Department complaint underscores the extent to which Trump’s social media attacks are testing prosecutors’ patience and risking subjecting him to sanctions from the judge, who last week set a hearing date for March 4, 2024 had to prevent this case moves. Trump has also been admonished in other cases. His release at a separate trial in Atlanta was conditional on his failure to intimidate co-defendants, witnesses or victims in the case.

The issue surfaced again in a dispute over an application that the Justice Department said it intended to file under seal, with an accompanying redacted version to be filed in the public file. Defense attorneys objected, saying they had time to review the Justice Department files and any proposed sealed evidence before they could be included in the files.

But prosecutors said it was untenable to take several weeks to decide whether “every ordinary file relating to sensitive materials should be included in the file.”

“Such a requirement would stall the litigation in this case, which is impracticable, particularly given the urgency of matters before the court – including the defendant’s day-to-day extrajudicial statements that threaten to impinge on the jury pool in this case, as detailed in the government’s motion.” is,” wrote the Smith team.

Chutkan set deadlines next week for additional filings that she says could be filed under wraps.

In addition to the case of subversion in the federal election, Trump is confronted with three other criminal proceedings. He is charged with 18 others in a state trial in Atlanta for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 Georgia election; is sued nationwide by Smith for accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents; and is accused in New York of falsifying business documents in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actor.

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