photo by: Associated Press

In this file photo from Aug. 23, 2016, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach responds to questions outside the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

TOPEKA — An attorney for Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is asking a federal judge not to release a videotaped deposition that Kobach gave in a lawsuit challenging the state’s proof of citizenship voting law, arguing that the tape would be used against him politically in his bid for governor.

The video, which was played in open court during the trial of that case earlier this year, includes Kobach’s account of advice he gave to President Donald Trump and documents he gave to Trump during a 2016 meeting, when Trump was transitioning into the White House.

Kobach reportedly advised Trump on a number of issues related to immigration and voting laws. Both Kobach and Trump have made unsubstantiated claims that millions of non-U.S. citizens voted in the 2016 election.

The court has released transcripts of that deposition, but the American Civil Liberties Union, responding to multiple media requests, is asking Judge Julie Robinson to allow the tape itself to be released.

In a document filed with the court on Wednesday, Sue Becker, an attorney representing Kobach, said Kobach, “expects the videotape to be immediately released to the media so that its footage can be used in last-minute political commercials targeting the Defendant personally.”

The ACLU has been arguing since September that media outlets have “a constitutionally protected right” to disseminate contents of the tape.

Kobach is the Republican nominee for governor this year and is currently locked in a close race with Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly.

In 2011, Kobach championed passage of a law requiring people to show documentary proof of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote. That law took effect in 2013, but it was placed on hold during the 2016 elections because of pending litigation in both federal and state courts.

That law resulted in tens of thousands of would-be voters having their registration applications placed “in suspense” or cancelled altogether because they failed to provide that documentation.

In June, after a trial, Judge Robinson struck down the law as both unconstitutional and for being in conflict with the federal National Voter Registration Act. That decision is now on appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

An ACLU spokesman said in an interview Thursday that it was not clear when Robinson would rule on the motion.