Trump calls judge ‘evil’ for releasing case files before election

Donald Trump has called a judge “the most evil person” as she released more than 1,800 pages of evidence in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s election conspiracy case against him.

The Republican White House candidate said US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan’s rejection of his request to delay releasing the new evidence until after next month’s vote amounted to “election interference”.

Legal analysts have debated whether filings in the case breach a justice department internal rule that prosecutors avoid any investigative step that might affect an election within 60 days of voting.

But in her ruling, Judge Chutkan argued that if she had kept the files under wraps, that could itself have been construed as election interference.

“If the court withheld information that the public otherwise had a right to access solely because of the potential political consequences of releasing it, that withholding could itself constitute – or appear to be – election interference,” she wrote.

Last year, a Texas woman was charged with making death threats against Judge Chutkan, citing the Trump case.

The heavily redacted 1,889 pages of documents released on Friday mostly rehash information already available publicly, including parts of former Vice-President Mike Pence’s biography and his formal announcement that he would not overturn the 2020 election results.

The new evidence is a part of a motion filed by Mr Smith last month.

Appearing on Friday during a podcast with right-wing media personality Dan Bongino, Trump lambasted Judge Chutkan and called the special counsel “a sick puppy”.

The indictment centres on the 6 January 2021 US Capitol riot and accuses Trump of illegally conspiring to overturn his election defeat three months earlier to Joe Biden.

During the interview, Trump also likened the detention of those charged with storming the Capitol to the US internment of Japanese Americans in World War Two.

“Why are they still being held? Nobody’s ever been treated like this,” he said. “Maybe the Japanese during Second World War, frankly.”

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump cannot be prosecuted for official acts carried out as president.

As a result, Mr Smith was forced to change the historic case brought against Trump and argue that he committed crimes while still in office, but as a private citizen.

He filed a new motion in September laying out the new case against the former president, which included allegations that Trump promoted false claims of election fraud despite believing them to be “crazy”.

The motion also included new details on how Trump’s relationship with Pence deteriorated, with the former vice-president telling Trump to stop repeating false election fraud theories and move on.

The documents released on Friday include transcripts of interviews with the 6 January House committee that investigated the US Capitol riot, parts of Pence’s autobiography and fundraising emails sent to voters.

It is unclear if the 6 January case will ever go to trial. Trump is expected to end the prosecution if he returns to the White House.

He is facing several other criminal cases. He already has been convicted on 34 felony counts in New York in relation to a hush-money payment.