'Speculation': Judge Chutkan denies Trump's demand for access to reams of DOJ documents
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump had a demand for information and documents they want from the Justice Department knocked back Wednesday, MSNBC contributor Adam Klasfeld reported on X.
The request was made as part of discovery for his 2020 election interference case.
But Judge Tanya Chutkan said only a small number of the documents they asked for were relevant — and denied access to the others.
"Five of the fourteen categories of information Defendant seeks specifically request discrete, identified documents," she wrote in her decision. "The remaining nine categories are generic requests for 'all information' or 'evidence' relating to certain topics.
"... Defendant has only carried his burden with respect to a small portion of the information he seeks. For most of it, he has proffered only speculation that a search will yield material, noncumulative information," she continued.
Some of the requests Trump's team made revolved around a statement released by Chris Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, after the 2020 election.
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“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result," the statement from Krebs and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said at the time.
Trump requested documents involving that with "nothing more than speculation" that they would undermine the assessment from Krebs, Chutkan said.
Another demand from Trump was for "all information regarding undercover agents and individuals acting at the direction of official authorities at the Capitol on January 6."
Chutkan said that the information is immaterial to his case.
The largest category of discovery Trump's team asked for was "all information relating to foreign influence efforts targeting the 2020 election, including foreign influence relating to events on January 6, whether or not he was briefed contemporaneously regarding these issues."
Chutkan said that Trump's "theories of materiality" don't hold up. She said that it "relies on a misunderstanding of the charges against him."
"The difference matters," she continues. "Whether Defendant sought to undermine public confidence in the election to legitimize or otherwise further his criminal conspiracies does not depend on whether other nations also tried to achieve similar results for their own purposes"