Judge Tanya Chutkan has rebuked Donald Trump for using “political rhetoric” in his latest court filing.
She ordered the evidence unsealed in Trump’s election fraud case, after Trump’s lawyers requested that she censor more details in the already heavily-redacted document. Chutkan, a federal judge in Washington, D.C, wrote on Wednesday that Trump’s arguments failed to address the issue at hand and were laden with political commentary.
Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Discovery World in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 1, 2024. A Washington, D.C judge has rebuked Trump for including political rhetoric in his court filings.
Jim Watson/Getty Images
“Defendant’s opposition brief repeatedly accuses the government of bad-faith partisan bias. These accusations, for which Defendant provides no support, continue a pattern of defense filings focusing on political rhetoric rather than addressing the legal issues at hand,” Chutkan wrote.
Newsweek emailed the Trump campaign team for comment on Thursday.
Trump is accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights in connection with an alleged pressure campaign on state officials to reverse the 2020 election results.
Trump has denied all charges against him and repeatedly said he is the victim of a political witch hunt. He has accused Smith of attempting to interfere in the 2024 presidential election by prosecuting him.
Chutkan added: “Not only is that focus [on political rhetoric] unresponsive and unhelpful to the court, but it is also unbefitting of experienced defense counsel and undermining of the judicial proceedings in this case.
“Defendant has had an opportunity to make his case that his prosecution is improperly motivated. Future filings should be directed to the issues before the court.”
This is just the latest order in which Chutkan has rebuked Trump for filing irrelevant political rhetoric.
In September, she refused a request by Trump’s lawyers to restrict Jack Smith‘s evidence memo to just 45 pages. In doing so, she sharply rebuked the “incoherence” of the Trump filing and said it included a lot of irrelevant material.
“The rest of the nine-page opposition rehashes Defendant’s position that immunity briefing should not begin until he files a motion to dismiss several months from now. The court has already addressed the scheduling objections Defendant raised when he was given an opportunity to do so,” she wrote.
In late August, Smith filed an updated indictment of Trump, reshaping the case to comply with the Supreme Court‘s ruling granting immunity to sitting presidents when conducting certain “official” acts.
The new indictment removes all accusations leveled against Trump regarding attempts to pressure the Department of Justice to falsely declare that President Joe Biden‘s 2020 election win was the result of massive fraud, after the Supreme Court ruled that was official conduct.
