Legal analyst Sol Wisenberg said Friday on Fox Business that Judge Tanya Chutkan’s written explanation for not withholding special prosecutor Jack Smith’s evidence against former President Donald Trump was “Orwellian.”
The U.S. district judge released a set of redacted documents from Smith’s case against Trump, stating that, despite pushback from the former president, she believed it would be “election interference” not to publicly disclose the materials. On “The Evening Edit,” Wisenberg argued it would have been simpler for Chutkan to delay the litigation over Trump’s immunity until after the election, noting the “damage” had already been done by releasing Smith’s filing.
“I think her brief opinion was Orwellian, really,” Wisenberg said. “And really the damage had already been done by the judge. It would have been easy for her to say, ‘We’re not going to litigate the issue of immunity for former President Trump.’ Which does need to be litigated in light of the Supreme Court opinion. ‘We have a national election coming up,’ is what she should have said, and ‘We’re going to wait until after November to litigate this.’”
“Instead, the real outrage was she allowed Jack Smith, who clearly has been engaged in election interference throughout his whole prosecution, she allowed him to file a 165-page document, a trial brief outlining what his evidence was going to be,” Wisenberg added. “That was the real outrage that happened before the election, and for her to pretend that is normal in any way is just ridiculous to anybody who’s used to practicing in the federal system.”
Fox host Elizabeth MacDonald pressed the legal analyst on what he believes could happen with the case. Wisenberg predicted “nothing,” stating that Chutkan has acted “within the bounds of the law.”
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“Nothing’s going to happen, I mean, what she’s done is within the bounds of the law,” Wisenberg added. “This will have whatever effect it’s going to have on the election, and then they’ll proceed.”
“But Smith is going to still have a very tough time showing that this conduct is that much of the conduct is non-immunized, so it ain’t over yet. Of course, if Trump wins the election, you can expect him to order the Justice Department to drop the case, and then we’ll have a real interesting time. We’ll see what attorney general decides to obey that … order,” Wisenberg said.
In September, Smith filed a motion to release the redacted version of his 165-page brief, addressing the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity in the election interference case against Trump. Chutkan approved the publication of a redacted version of the filing on Oct. 2, just under 35 days left before the election.
Trump’s attorneys argued against the release, claiming it would “amount to an improper motion for summary judgment in the court of public opinion.” However, the district judge wrote that there was “no support” for the Trump attorneys’ claims.
Featured Image Credit: Tia Dufour; Official White House Photo
