No. of Recommendations: 16
The federal judge in Trump's insurrection case has approved the request by Jack Smith to file a 180-page briefing outlining the factual evidence supporting Trump's prosecution. The need for the briefing was triggered by the Supreme Court ruling on Presidential immunity and that court's decision to remand the case back down to the trial court for the judge to review all charges and sources of evidence in light of some actions possibly gaining protection under the new immunity ruling.
For the judge to review the fundamentals of the case, the prosecution had to review its entire case and pare weed out all actions it felt would definitely gain immunity protection. But the prosecution also had to review all EVIDENCE whose provenance might fall under new protections granted by the Supreme Court's ruling such as orders from the President to a member of his cabinet, etc.
As an indication of the sheer scope of this case, Special Prosecutor Jack Smith had to petition the judge for special permission to submit a brief exceeding 45 pages. It is apparently a requirement in at least the D.C. federal circuit that all trial motions and brief be 45 pages or less. In Smith's petition, he argued it would be difficult for the court to fulfill the direction given it by the Supreme Court to thoroughly analyze the charges and evidence in the case to separate elements protected by immunity from those not WITHOUT the entire context of the case as the prosecution currently sees it and that would require 180 pages. The court agreed and granted permission for the jumbo brief.
Here's an interesting point to ponder. Jack Smith's initial case for the events leading up to January 6, 2021 was purposely streamlined. His indictment identifies numerous unindicted conspirators who were presumably omitted to avoid allowing their legal maneuvers to further interfere with a rapid prosecution of Trump. That means this 180 page mammoth document is highly focused on Trump. Smith and team have far MORE evidence that will eventually get used in other indictments after first dealing with Trump. Of course, that presumes he doesn't win re-election, kill this case and begin persecuting anyone that had a hand in pursuing it.
Smith will prepare and submit two different versions of the document on Thursday, September 26. One will have full information for the judge to review. A second version will be redacted to hide information related to other yet-to-be-indicted parties to minimize the chance of Trump's team attempting to influence the testimony of those parties. The judge will be able to review the full version, then review the redactions and release that for public consumption. That could take a couple of days but presumably, that redacted version WILL be released for the public to review prior to the election.
WTH
