Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan moved earlier this month to unseal a 165-page court filing from Special Counsel Jack Smith containing numerous allegations against former President Donald Trump.

While Smith is now seeking to release yet more material, one observer expects Trump to try and stop him via an appeal. 

Trump "evaluate litigation options" over Smith's "false hit job"

That was the position put forward in an op-ed piece published late last week by New York Sun associate editor A.R. Hoffman.

Hoffman noted how Chutkan just overruled Trump's objection to Smith's request that an appendix to his earlier filing be made public.

She called his "blanket objections to further unsealing are without merit" while insisting that "'concern with the political consequences of these proceedings' is not a cognizable legal prejudice."

Nevertheless, Chutkan did grant the former president's request for a delay in the material's release so that he may "evaluate litigation options" concerning Smith's "monstrosity" of "a false hit job."

Both Trump and former prosecutor accuse Smith of election interference

Trump maintains there "there should be no further disclosures at this time of the so-called ‘evidence’ that the Special Counsel’s Office has unlawfully cherry-picked and mischaracterized—during early voting in the 2024 Presidential election."

He further contends that Smith's filing has "no basis in criminal procedure or judicial precedent" and is simply an "overt and inappropriate election interference" which contravenes the Department of Justice's own filings.

Trump is not alone in accusing the special counsel of election interference, as former prosecutor and CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig made a similar case in a recent New York magazine column.

According to Fox News, Honig alleged that Smith "has essentially abandoned any pretense" and will "bend any rule, switch up on any practice — so long as he gets to chip away at Trump's electoral prospects."

"At this point, there's simply no defending Smith's conduct on any sort of principled or institutional basis," the former prosecutor continued.

Legal analyst suggests Smith has "no principles at all"

Honig pointed to the Justice Manual, a document which he describes as being the Department of Justice's "internal bible."

It states, "Federal prosecutors … may never select the timing of any action, including investigative steps, criminal charges, or statements, for the purpose of affecting any election."

As he drew to a close, the legal analyst asserted that "[i]f prosecutors bend their principles depending on the identity of their prey, then they've got no principles at all."