The E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse stands behind barricades and police tape in Washington, DC, prior to Trump’s arraignment for his role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection and other efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election (Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via AP). Inset left: Former President of the United States Donald J. Trump plays golf during the LIV Golf Bedminster 2023 Pro-Am at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in Bedminster, New Jersey on August 10, 2023 (Photo by Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via AP). Inset right: Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to the media about an indictment of former President Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023, at an office of the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite).
In Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the jurist overseeing Donald Trump‘s Jan. 6 election subversion case, entered a completely classified and redacted one-page order onto the docket, prompting watchers of the recently-revived indictment of the former president and 34-count convicted felon to wonder just what the secrecy is all about.
While impossible to know for certain at this juncture, it seems all too likely that the order’s contents include key pretrial evidence ordered to be kept under wraps in light of guidelines Chutkan set down in August 2023, as Law&Crime previously reported. Significantly, prosecutors have long said that there is only a small amount of classified information underlying the Jan. 6 criminal case against Trump. When special counsel Jack Smith‘s legal team raised concerns last year that Trump’s public commentary on the case may intimidate witnesses or that he would disseminate grand jury materials to do the same, Chutkan set down a nuanced protective order governing discovery and grand jury materials following an Aug. 11, 2023 hearing.
Looking to head off delays and temper expectations, the order instructed that the only materials the parties could designate as “sensitive” or demand redaction for were records containing personal identifying information of the defendant or witnesses, grand jury materials including witness names or testimonies, materials the parties obtained through sealed search warrants, any sealed order obtained by the government’s classified “filter team” related to the case and any recordings, interview reports or other exhibits tied to witness interviews and/or other materials obtained from “other governmental entities,” the judge wrote.
Though much has happened to impact Trump’s Jan. 6 criminal case since then — specifically, the Supreme Court‘s decision on presidential immunity that has forced Smith to reevaluate his indictment now that the case is back in Chutkan’s court — the protective contours on sensitive materials have remained unchanged. The good news for court watchers is the historically the judge has advocated for transparency in the case and said she will reserve redactions in only the most necessary instances and specifically if it protects witnesses from being intimidated or would otherwise preserve the safety and order of her courtroom.
Law&Crime takes a look at this and other key developments in Trump’s cases in New York, Florida, Georgia, and Washington, D.C.
NEW YORK
CRIMINAL
Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan slapped away Trump’s latest requests that the judge recuse himself. Trump insisted that Merchan’s daughter‘s political work made it impossible for the judge to be impartial but Merchan told him plainly: “innuendo and mischaracterizations do not a conflict create.”
Trump’s lawyers tried coming at it from a different angle afterward, suggesting that if his sentencing — currently set for Sept. 18 — was delayed past the 2024 election, it would serve to “prospectively mitigate the asserted conflicts.”
CIVIL
A deadline has come and gone for Trump to file his appellate brief of the E. Jean Carroll case. Oral arguments are Sept. 6. Trump was found liable for defamation and sexual abuse in the first case and a jury awarded Carroll $5.5 million in damages.
Left: Donald Trump speaks after voting in the Florida primary election in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee). Right: Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan poses for a picture in his chambers in New York, Thursday, March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
GEORGIA
CRIMINAL
A state appeals court quietly denied a request by Trump’s lead attorney to push back key proceedings aimed at dismissing the former president’s racketeering (RICO) and election subversion charges brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Trump’s lawyer wanted to take a 70th birthday trip with his wife of 45 years, he said, and indicated it was “fully paid and non-refundable.”
Main image: Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee speaks in court, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, Pool). Inset left: FILE – Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks, March 9, 2024, in Rome, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File). Inset right: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing on the Georgia election interference case, March, 1, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Slitz, Pool)
FLORIDA
CRIMINAL
From defendant to plaintiff: Trump has sued the Justice Department and FBI for $100 million in punitive damages, alleging that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s dismissal of special counsel Jack Smith‘s prosecution of Trump in the classified documents case is proof that the federal government’s search of Mar-a-Lago amounted to “tortious conduct” and forced him to incur costly legal bills.
Federal prosecutors say FBI agents seized these materials from Mar-a-Lago. The contents of the documents were redacted with white squares. (Image via an Aug. 31, 2022 federal court filing.)
WASHINGTON, D.C.
CRIMINAL
A classified and redacted one-page brief appeared on the docket signifying that special counsel Jack Smith‘s team may have provided a sliver of an already small amount of classified material for pretrial discovery.
OF NOTE: An 84-year-old judge overseeing a sexual harassment and discrimination claim brought by a former public defender against the U.S. judiciary invoked the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling this week, saying that the high court’s treatment of Trump eschewed history and fundamentally redesigned the relationship between “the sovereign people and the first citizen of the Republic.”
This image from Senate Television video shows Ryan Joseph Orlando, top right, looking at papers on a lectern on the Senate floor on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington (Senate Television via AP). Inset: Former President Donald Trump listens as he speaks with reporters while in flight on his plane after a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport, in Waco, Texas, March 25, 2023, while en route to West Palm Beach, Florida (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File).
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