Donald Trump Begs Judge For More Redactions In Brief For Jan. 6 Case

After attorneys for Donald Trump lashed out in a court filing Tuesday claiming that special counsel Jack Smith is attempting to “usurp control” of the defense, and demanding more redactions in Smith’s brief laying out evidence in the former president’s election subversion case linked to the January 2021 insurrection, prosecutors offered a series of hints about what’s to come.

In a motion opposing Trump’s request for additional discovery in the case as well as additional redactions in the impending public brief, prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday that the coming appendix, for example, would include interview transcripts and reports, text messages, and more records “that the defendant has long possessed.”

“The defendant agrees with the Government’s proposed redactions of the names of individuals who are not specifically identified in the Superseding Indictment,” Smith wrote, though Trump now argues that the redactions do not go far enough to protect witness identities.

Smith, for example, revealed Tuesday in a motion opposing Trump’s additional discovery requests that the names of witnesses in the case will be redacted, but identifiers such as “Arizona House Speaker,” “Georgia Attorney General” and “Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee,” for example, will not.

“On this point, a case that the defendant cites, United States v. Todd, supports the Government’s position, not his own,” Smith wrote.

“There, the court permitted the Government to file source materials under seal but required it to file on the public docket the information important to the Court’s determination — the overall amount of damage incurred by federal agencies during the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol — and