Jack Smith seeks to release public version of major filing in Trump J6 case

In the ongoing effort among prosecutors to work around a Supreme Court ruling in July that gave Donald Trump immunity for official acts he took while president, special counsel Jack Smith wants to file a public version of a Thursday brief with "substantive" information from witnesses in Trump’s election interference case.

The effort, reported by ABC News, comes a day after Smith filed a sealed brief where Smith claimed that presidential immunity should not apply to Trump, who is accused of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In Friday’s filing, Smith seeks to release a version of the brief that will redact names of witnesses, except for former Vice President Mike Pence, along with other information not meant to be seen by the public.

“The public's interest is fully vindicated by accessing the substantive material in the Government's filing," the filing said.

Trump pleaded not guilty last year to charges of participating in a "criminal scheme" to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

“The unredacted substance of what a witness said is more important, for purposes of public access, than the redacted identity of the specific person who said it,” Friday’s filing said.

If made public, the filing would presumably include information obtained from witnesses, grand jury testimony and search warrants, albeit with most names redacted.

U.S District Judge Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered Trump's lawyers to file their objections to the proposed redactions on Tuesday, and a response from the prosecutors is due on Oct 10.