(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith appears to be colluding with a DC judge to conceal evidence from the public as former President Donald Trump‘s indictment hearings continue, Julie Kelly reported on her Declassified substack.
Tanya Chutkan, an Obama-appointed judge who has gone on the warpath against Trump’s J6 defendants, has a long history of opposing the former president and everything that he attempted to do.
“On January 6, 2021, hundreds of rioters converged on the U.S. Capitol,” Chutkan wrote in November 2021.
“They scaled walls, demolished barricades, and smashed windows in a violent attempt to gain control of the building and stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results,” she continued, proceeding to call the rally an “unprecedented attempt to prevent the lawful transfer of power from one administration to the next.”
Now it appears that Chutkan is favoring Smith at every turn, particularly helping him outmaneuver Trump and his legal team.
Smith initially wanted Trump to agree “not disclose…materials provided by the United States. . . other than [to] persons employed to assist in the defense, persons who are interviewed as potential witnesses, counsel for potential witnesses, and other persons to whom the Court may authorize disclosure,” but Trump’s team objected.
Despite the objection, assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gaston filed a motion soon thereafter asking Chutkan to move quickly to approve the government’s protective order “without awaiting a responsive brief” from Trump’s legal team.
In effect, Trump’s ability to campaign, or talk about the highly-politicized trial during his campaign, will be severely restricted.
And though Gaston attempted to argue that Chutkan’s hurrying along of Smith’s demands would “expedite the flow of discovery in this case [and] give the defendant prompt access to a large portion of the discovery he ultimately will receive,” it remains clear that such a restriction will harm Trump’s 2024 odds.
