D.C. judge rejects Trump bid to remove 'prejudicial' language from election indictments

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday rejected a bid former President Donald Trump to remove language in the indictments against him that his attorneys deemed "prejudicial and inflammatory."

Trump currently faces conspiracy charges in special counsel Jack Smith's case involving his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results and has pleaded not guilty. The former president's legal team had objected to passages in the indictment referring to the "actions of independent actors at the Capitol on January 6, 2021" for which the prosecutors did charge Trump himself, The Hill reported.

"Because the Government has not charged President Trump with responsibility for the actions at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, allegations related to these actions are not relevant and are prejudicial and inflammatory. Therefore, the Court should strike these allegations from the Indictment," his attorneys wrote last month.

"Regardless of whether the allegations at issue are relevant, Defendant has not satisfied his burden to clearly show that they are prejudicial," Chutkan said.

Smith's team, meanwhile, had argued that "evidence of the attack at the Capitol on January 6 is powerful and probative evidence of the defendant’s conduct, motive, and intent."

Trump specifically faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

He has contended that the case, as well as the myriad other legal proceedings against him, are part of broader political witch hunt designed to derail his 2024 bid to return to the White House.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.