Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy said Friday that U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of D.C. risked prejudicing potential jurors against former President Donald Trump by allowing more of special counsel Jack Smith’s documents to be released.
Chutkan agreed to Smith’s request to allow the public to view four documents totaling over 1,800 pages of potential evidence in Smith’s federal election interference case against Trump. McCarthy said Chutkan’s move proved the case was a “political exercise.”
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“I’m not curious, because I thought from the beginning this was a political exercise. Now, that doesn’t mean there’s not a case in there someplace, but the timing of this strategically has always been a political exercise,” McCarthy said when asked by “The Story” guest hot Trace Gallagher if he found the timing “curious.” “I have to chuckle when Judge Chutkan says she would not want to let politics or anything like that enter into her decision-making. A judge in a normal case, Trace, would be concerned about the jury pool.”
“Contrary to what Judge Chutkan says, her responsibility is not to the American people writ large to fill the campaign airwaves with new information. Her responsibility is to give Trump a fair trial and make sure the jury pool’s not prejudiced,” McCarthy continued. “And any judge who was making that her north star would be very concerned about releasing this information prior to the election. Jack Smith, if he was a normal prosecutor, if he was serious when he was running around saying that his defendant is a threat to democracy as we know it and could even be a threat to witnesses, the last thing you would do is release all your case if that was what you’re really concerned about.”
Smith secured a superseding indictment against Trump almost two months after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump’s claims of immunity in a case stemming from a previous indictment secured by Smith over the former president’s efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.
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