(Photo
by
Win
McNamee/Getty
Images)
That’s
it? That’s
what
Donald
Trump’s
lawyers
threw
such
a
tantrum
over?
This
afternoon,
Judge
Tanya
Chutkan
unsealed
the
redacted
Appendix
to
the
special
counsel’s
immunity
brief
in
the
election
interference
case.
It
is
1,889
pages,
the
vast
majority
of
which
are
sealed.
What
is
unsealed
is
a
heavily
redacted
version
of
documents
already
in
the
public
domain,
largely
transcripts
from
the
January
6
Select
Committee
and
Trump’s
own
tweets.
And
while
Special
Counsel
Smith
used
the
brief
itself
to
weave
a
damning
narrative
about
the
former
president’s
efforts
to
overturn
the
last
election,
the
four-volume
appendix,
at
least
in
its
public
form,
is
simply
a
few
pages
of
disjointed
snippets
among
upwards
of
1,000
pages
that
simply
say
“SEALED.”
It’s
not
even
a
nothing
burger
—
it’s
a diet
nothing
burger.
Fittingly,
the
only
new
episode
involves
a
valet
getting
Trump
a
Diet
Coke
at
approximately
1:21pm
on
January
6,
2021,
and
apologizing
that
the
recording
of
his
speech
on
the
Ellipse
cut
off
because
the
networks
switched
over
to
covering
the
riot
unfolding
at
the
Capitol.
It
was
“sir,
they
cut
if
off
because
they’re
rioting
down
at
the
Capitol.”
…
And
he
was
like,
“What
do
you
mean?”
I
said,
“It’s,
like,
They’re
rioting
down
there
at
the
Capitol.”
And
he
was
like
“Oh,
really?”
And
then
he
was
like
“All
right,
let’s
go
see.”
This
makes
it
all
the
weirder
that
Trump’s
lawyers
threw
such
a
pointless
hissy
fit
about
the
documents
being
released
on
a
Friday
in
October
when
everyone
is
preoccupied
with
the
election
anyway.
Yesterday,
on
the
seventh
day
of
the
seven-day
stay
Judge
Chutkan
gave
Trump
and
his
lawyers
to
pursue
their
“litigation
options,”
they
filed
a
motion
to
continue
the
stay
until
November
14,
when
Trump’s
own
rebuttal
is
due
to
be
released.
The
court
had
already
rejected
multiple
requests
to
do
just
that,
making
clear
that
she
would
not
consider
the
exigencies
of
the
political
calendar
in
this
case.
Trump’s
counterargument
was
essentially,
“but,
your
honor,
have
you
considered
the
exigencies
of
the
political
calendar
as
a
matter
of
public
interest?”
“[L]imiting
the
public’s
access
to
only
one
side
of
this
important
debate,
even
temporarily,
would
grievously
harm
its
understanding
of
this
case,”
he
mumbled.
The
court
responded
by
pointing
out
that,
once
again,
Trump
and
his
counsel
had
failed
to
engage
with
the
actual
legal
standard
for
rebutting
the
assumption
in
favor
of
public
access
to
court
records.
The
judge
also
noted
that,
if
Trump
is
so
worried
about
presenting
“simultaneous
releases”
to
ensure
that
“the
public
fully
understand
the
arguments
and
documents
on
both
sides
of
this
momentous
issue,
and
is
not
misled
by
one-sided
submissions,”
he’s
perfectly
free
to
turn
in
his
homework
early.
But
she
was
most
indignant
at
the
suggestion
that
doing
her
job
amounted
to
“political
interference,”
and
so
to
counter
the
appearance
that
she
was
timing
her
rulings
to
impact
with
the
election,
she
should
schedule
her
rulings around
the
election.
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.
The
court
will
therefore
continue
to
keep
political
considerations
out
of
its
decision-making,
rather
than
incorporating
them
as
Defendant
requests.
This
morning
she
ordered
the
heavily
redacted
document
unsealed,
where
it
promptly
broke
PACER
as
thousands
of
reporters
furiously
tried
to
download
thousands
of
blank
pages
at
once.
Meanwhile,
Trump’s
screechman
Stephen
Cheung
put
out
a
statement
howling
that
“Radical
Democrats
are
hell-bent
on
interfering
in
the
presidential
election
on
behalf
of
Lyin’
Kamala
Harris.”
“As
mandated
by
the
Supreme
Court’s
historic
decision
on
Presidential
Immunity
and
other
vital
jurisprudence,
this
entire
case
is
a
sham
and
a
partisan,
Unconstitutional
Witch
Hunt
that
should
be
dismissed
entirely
—
as
should
ALL
of
the
remaining
Democrat
hoaxes,”
he
went
on.
Please
don’t
let
them
put
in
the
paper
that
I
got
mad.
US
v.
Trump [Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.