On Wednesday, Donald Trump spoke out after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., publicly released a brief on presidential immunity from special counsel Jack Smith in the 2020 election subversion case against the former president.
In a flurry of posts to Truth Social, Trump warned of election interference, arguing that the filing’s appearance on the public docket so close to the 2024 contest boosts a political scheme to undermine his current campaign.
“Democrats are Weaponizing the Justice Department against me because they know I am WINNING, and they are desperate to prop up their failing Candidate, Kamala Harris,” Trump said in a post to his social media platform.
He also questioned the timing, contending that it came “immediately” after Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s “disastrous” performance in the vice presidential debate and a little more than a month before the election.
The filing was submitted under seal last week. Federal judge Tanya Chutkan was the one who ordered its release.
Chutkan wrote Trump’s team provided “no support” to claims of “bad-faith partisan bias” and rejected the defense’s push for redactions beyond names to protect witnesses, citing the public’s “need to understand” the document.
The 165-page filing discusses how prosecutors’ superseding indictment should be able to abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling in July that presidents have immunity for official acts.
