WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday called the judge overseeing the Jan. 6 federal criminal case against him “the most evil person,” despite threats U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has already faced from his supporters.
Trump also called special counsel Jack Smith, who has also faced threats from Trump supporters, “a sick puppy” — a term he often uses against figures he doesn’t like — during a podcast with right-wing media personality Dan Bongino.
Trump blasted the judge for releasing hundreds of pages of documents Friday — most of them heavily redacted — that Smith submitted in connection with an earlier filing arguing against Trump’s motion to dismiss the case.
The documents released Friday are heavily redacted and largely contain information that was already public. They do show that Smith’s team is relying on interview transcripts and other information released by the House committee on Jan. 6, which was disbanded after Democrats lost the House of Representatives in 2022.
Trump called the release of the documents “election interference” during his podcast appearance and said it was “a terrible thing what’s happening.” And the judges, this judge is the most evil person.”
“They all said, ‘Well, don’t get Chutkan.’ And who did I get? I got Chutkan. So, you know, they should pick balls, right?” Trump continued, referring in lottery-like terms to the random selection system used to assign federal judges to cases. “It’s not… I don’t think it works that way, but that’s what they say. That’s the way it should be. You pick from a hat, and that’s the judge.”
In the other federal case brought by Jack Smith, Trump infamously pulled out one of his own appointees, Aileen Cannon, who regularly favored Trump in court and ultimately dismissed the entire case, a decision challenged by the Justice Department appeals.
Chutkan’s security detail has grown noticeably since she was assigned the Trump case, and targets of Trump’s ire have been the subject of threats again and again from his fan base.
Last year, a Texas woman was arrested and charged with making racist threats against Chutkan. “You are in our sights, we want to kill you,” Abigail Jo Shry allegedly said, according to federal authorities. “If Trump isn’t elected in 2024, we’re coming to kill you, so be careful, b– –.”
Shry has not entered a plea in the case, but her court docket shows she has undergone substance abuse treatment and her trial will take place next month.
Earlier this year, Chutkan was the victim of one different “swatting” call, which means a false report to law enforcement that triggers a police response to the target’s home.
Chutkan began overseeing the Trump case after his first federal indictment in the case on January 6, 2023, and made it clear from the start that Trump’s 2024 presidential candidacy would not affect her handling of the case. Trump’s team then implemented a delaying strategy, which paid off; their argument about presidential immunity reached the Supreme Court, which ruled out the use of some of Smith’s evidence and postponed the case until after the election.
When Chutkan got the case back from the Supreme Court, she began formulating a plan to determine outgoing issues, including regulating what types of evidence could be used after the Supreme Court’s ruling. As part of that lawsuit, and in response to an argument from Trump’s lawyers that the indictment did not allege Trump was not responsible for the Jan. 6 attack, Smith’s team said that Trump, in their view, was responsible for the attack. On Friday, Chutkan released redacted attachments related to Smith’s argument, which upset Trump, he said, because the election is less than three weeks away.
“What judge would do that?” Trump said on Bongino’s podcast. “Forget crazy Jack Smith. You know, a judge has to hold – what judge would say, ‘We’re going to release something, you know, a few days early.'”
Trump faces four charges in the Washington-based case – conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempted obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights – to which he is not guilty has pleaded.
A key to Smith’s case is his claim that Trump knew the lies he spread to his followers about the 2020 election were in fact false. Earlier this week, Chutkan issued a ruling denying most of Trump’s requests for additional discovery, citing an argument from Trump’s team that he may have been concerned about foreign election interference – rather than the false claims of election fraud in predominantly non-white cities he spread out publicly at the time – “edgy.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
