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Trump’s Team Is Trying to Stop — Or Heavily Redact — the Release of Jack Smith’s Election Fraud Report

The former president’s lawyers are trying to get ahead of what could be his campaign’s October surprise.

Donald Trump Todd Blanche
Trump’s defense attorneys, John F. Lauro and Todd Blanche, are calling for Jack Smith’s report to be redact. Dave Sanders/AP

Donald Trump’s lawyers are scrambling to get ahead of what could be this election’s October surprise: the public release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report detailing evidence in the election fraud case against the former president.

In a court filing on Tuesday, Trump’s legal team accused the Department of Justice of putting together a “politically motivated manifesto” specifically timed to influence voters “in the final weeks of the 2024 Presidential election while early voting has already begun throughout the United States.”

They asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to highly redact the report or stop it from appearing in the court’s public docket altogether.