Special counsel releases trove of redacted documents in 2020 election subversion case against Trump

By Jeremy Herb, Devan Cole, Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz and John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — Special counsel Jack Smith on Friday released nearly 2,000 heavily redacted pages of documents in his 2020 election subversion criminal case against former President Donald Trump, revealing snippets of the evidence Smith relied on to charge the former president.

Most of the pages are completely redacted and believed to include grand jury transcripts and notes from FBI interviews conducted during the yearslong investigation.

The documents that are visible largely contain information that’s already been released publicly, including a transcript of Trump’s call with the Georgia secretary of state after the 2020 election where Trump asked him to “find” votes, photos of the 2020 fake elector certificates, and Vice President Mike Pence’s letter to Congress explaining why he could not reject congressional certification of the election on January 6, 2021.

But the evidence publicly released Friday gives a glimpse into what Smith is using to prosecute Trump. In one instance, there was some new detail from the transcript of the House January 6 committee’s 2022 interview with an unnamed White House employee.

Earlier this year, House Republicans had released a transcript of the committee’s interview with the White House employee, but Republicans redacted some of the employee’s responses that Smith highlighted.

According to the transcript, the White House employee told Trump that TV networks had pulled away from his speech because “they’re rioting down at the Capitol.”

“And he was, like, What do you mean? I said, It’s, like, they’re rioting there at the Capitol. And he was, like, Oh, really? And then he was like, All right, let’s go see,” the employee said.

The employee told the committee he took off Trump’s outer coat, got a TV and handed Trump the remote, after which he went to retrieve a Diet Coke for the president, who was sitting in the Oval Dining Room.

“I’m taking off his outer coat that he’s wearing right now, and I get the TV, like, ready for him, and hand him over the remote, and he starts watching it,” the employee said. “And I stepped out to get him a Diet Coke, come back in, and that’s pretty much it for me as he’s watching it and, like, seeing it for himself.”

The redacted appendices filed on the public docket in the case are related to Smith’s expansive filing from earlier this month that laid out his fullest picture yet of the case against Trump and Smith’s belief that his actions around the 2020 election should not be shielded by presidential immunity.

The documents were released a day after Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a bid by Trump to pause the release. Trump argued that posting the documents now could be seen as election inference and had asked them to remain under seal until after Election Day.

“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,” Chutkan wrote in a decision late Thursday.

What’s in the files

The documents was released in four volumes Friday. Here’s what’s included amid the redacted, blank pages:

The first volume of evidence contains excerpts of various House January 6 committee’s interviews as part of the panel’s investigation into the Capitol riot.

The second volume is filled with sealed pages as well as tweets and other social media posts from Trump, his campaign and allies, including some posted during the January 6 Capitol riot.

One of the tweets include Trump’s post that day that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done” that day in supporting his effort to change the election results.

Others include a myriad of claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election.

Prosecutors have argued that these tweets from Trump should be allowed to be used in the trial because they were personal in nature or part of his campaigning efforts and not his official duties as president.

The third volume contains photos of the signed fake elector certificates that Trump allies hoped would help reverse the 2020 election results, photos of pages of Pence’s 2022 autobiography, and the transcript from Trump’s January 2020 call with Georgia’s secretary of state.

The final volume includes memos from lawyer John Eastman with a plan for Pence to reject the congressional certification of the 2020 election. The volume also includes a public statement Trump released the night before January 6 claiming he and Pence were on the same page about the congressional certification, Trump’s prepared remarks for his speech on January 6 and fundraising emails sent out by his 2020 campaign in the days before January 6.

The documents also include a copy of a handwritten note containing a request for Pence to “reject” electors, a January 6-related budget and a transcript of Trump’s 2023 CNN town hall.

Prosecutors have charged Trump with four crimes stemming from his actions following his 2020 election loss, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

In a blockbuster ruling this summer, the Supreme Court said that Trump enjoys partial presidential immunity for alleged crimes he committed while in office. Chutkan must now decide how to apply that ruling to the conduct at issue in this case.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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