U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Donald Trump’s federal election interference case, denied the former president’s motion to dismiss all the charges in his case on the grounds of presidential immunity on Saturday.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has accused Trump of attempting to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory in events that led to the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, but the former president claims that he is immune from prosecution because he was in office when the alleged scheme took place. Trump claimed without evidence that the election was stolen from him due to widespread voter fraud. He has pleaded not guilty to all four felony charges against him and claims the case is politically motivated.
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After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on July 1 in a 6-3 decision that former presidents have immunity for official acts conducted while in office, but not for unofficial acts, the judgment was handed down all the way back to the the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C.
With the case back in Chutkan’s hands, she denied Trump’s motion to dismiss his charges on the grounds of presidential immunity in a brief filed on Saturday.
Trump, however, “may file a renewed motion once all issues of immunity have been resolved,” the judge added in her brief.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, via email for comment on Saturday morning.
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Chutkan originally set Trump’s trial start date for March 2024, but court proceedings were paused upon appeal. Now that the case is back with Chutkan, she can resume proceedings. In Saturday’s filing, she scheduled a meeting about the case for August 16.
However, it’s unlikely that the trial will start before the 2024 presidential election in November.
Former U.S. attorney and MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade explained how DOJ special counsel Jack Smith could still prosecute Trump even with the wrench that the Supreme Court threw in his case.
McQuade told the hosts of MSNBC’s The Weekend in early July that “it is not just the defendant, it is also the public that has a right to a speedy trial.”
“I think the more progress [Smith] can make before a [potential] president-elect Donald Trump goes into office, the more he can do at the other end. Certainly, the things that have been deemed official acts, such as Donald Trump’s interaction with the Justice Department are going to go by the wayside. Jack Smith has the option of amending the indictment,” she said.
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McQuade continued: “You don’t have to go back to a grand jury to remove things from an indictment where they already found probable cause. So, he can pare this down to just those acts he believes are [un]official acts. Certainly, it will be litigated, but the public will have an opportunity to see what the unofficial acts were.”
Trump was indicted in August 2023 on conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.
