A federal judge presiding over the election interference proceedings involving Donald Trump has instructed the prosecution to locate and share any relevant information from the Justice Department about a different investigation into Mike Pence’s management of classified documents. This directive was issued on Wednesday.
Trump’s legal team contended that such information could be significant for their defense, as it might suggest that Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president, had “an incentive to curry favor with authorities,” potentially implicating Trump while he was himself under scrutiny for retaining classified materials at his residence in Indiana.
The prosecution, led by special counsel Jack Smith, asserted that they were not involved in Pence’s inquiry and claimed to have “no discoverable information” beyond what was publicly available. Nonetheless, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan mandated that Smith’s team search for any additional documents related to the Pence investigation. She emphasized that the defense has the right to introduce evidence indicating a witness’s uncharged conduct to challenge the witness’s credibility.
Judge Chutkan acknowledged the validity of the defense’s point, stating that if there are indications suggesting a potential witness’s motives for implicating Trump, such information could indeed be material. However, the judge largely dismissed the broader evidence Trump requested from the prosecutors. She noted that the defense failed to adequately demonstrate the relevance of this information concerning the allegations that he unlawfully attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Included in this rejected request were a variety of documents linked to the 2020 election and the events of January 6, 2021, including security information pertaining to the Capitol and details about any undercover government agents present. Trump also sought access to the complete U.S. intelligence community’s evaluation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, alongside information on foreign entities’ actions to influence the 2020 election, which the defense believed would support the argument that “Trump and others acted in good faith,” even if some reports turned out to be incorrect.
However, the judge stated that info regarding foreign interference in the 2020 election was irrelevant to the current case. She wrote, “Whether Defendant sought to undermine public confidence in the election to legitimize or otherwise further his criminal conspiracies does not depend on whether other nations also tried to achieve similar results for their own purposes.”
Pence had testified before a grand jury investigating Trump in April 2023 after a federal appellate court ruled against an attempt by Trump’s attorneys to block his testimony based on executive privilege. By June of that year, Justice Department officials had advised Pence’s attorneys that he would face no criminal charges following the earlier discovery of approximately a dozen documents marked as classified in his home. No evidence has indicated that Pence purposely concealed documents from authorities or was even aware of their presence, ensuring that charges against him were never anticipated.
Additionally, Judge Chutkan directed the prosecutors to release two other categories of information: specifics regarding any security measures discussed with Pence during a meeting with military officials about January 6, 2021, and insights that Trump’s Director of National Intelligence reviewed before giving testimony to the prosecutors.
The timeline for when the election interference case will proceed to trial remains uncertain, especially following a Supreme Court decision from July that granted former presidents significant immunity and limited the nature of the allegations against Trump. Currently, Chutkan is responsible for deciding which of the prosecution’s accusations can continue as part of the case and which should be eliminated, a process likely to prompt more appeals. If Trump were to secure reelection, he could expect his new attorney general to pursue the dismissal of the case.
