'Without merit': Judge shuts down Trump's latest trial request

The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s election interference case denied the former president’s request to stop the release of further evidence before the election — but paused the ruling to allow the former president a week to “evaluate litigation options.”

The decision Thursday afternoon by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan finds that making public Special Counsel Jack Smith’s latest redacted filing is “appropriate,” and that Trump’s “blanket objections to further unsealing are without merit.”

“As in his previous filing, he identifies no specific substantive objections to particular proposed redactions,” Chutkan wrote in the ruling.

Trump had attempted to keep any further evidence against him in his criminal case out of the view of voters until after the Nov. 5 election.