December 13, 2023
It appears former President Trump has just succeeded in slowing down his federal election interference trial in Washington DC.
That trial was scheduled to begin in March of next year – but the judge in the case – Tanya Chutkan – just issued this three page order today saying she is pausing all the procedural deadlines she set for this case while the appeals process plays out. Judge Chutkan ruled a few weeks ago former president Trump does not have “absolute immunity” from prosecution simply because he was the president of the united states.
Trump appealed that ruling – but as I told you in this video on Monday — special counsel Jack Smith appealed it too. Going around the appeals court and straight to the Supreme Court asking the justices to settle whether Trump has immunity or not. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether they will get involved – but they didn’t say they won’t get involved either. They just said they want to hear what trump’s team has to say about smith’s request and then they’ll decide.
But because immunity is a critical issue in the entire case, and because the appeals process is playing out in real time — judge Chutkan said she no longer has jurisdiction over certain aspects of the criminal case. And that means she says – it is very likely – the March 4th trial start date is likely going to get pushed.
But even though the judge has lost jurisdiction on some issues she says in today’s order – that she still has authority to enforce the limited gag order she placed on Trump that the appeals court just upheld. She says that’s still within her jurisdiction to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings.
Now – special counsel Jack Smith has said all along the former president’s strategy is to delay all his criminal trials as long as possible. And the Trump team has actually agreed – asking the judges in all his criminal cases to push the trials off until at least after the election. But when it comes to this immunity issue, you’d think the Trump team would want to know if that’s a viable legal strategy as soon as possible. But that’s not what Trump’s legal team is saying. In a filing in the DC appeals court today the Trump teams compares Jack Smith to the Grinch saying he’s trying to derail their holiday travel plans because he’s trying to expedite this hearing and ruling. They also argue by pushing to get the election interference trial going before the 2024 election – that would “disenfranchise” voters.
Judge Tanya Chutkan ruling here.
