In a move that has stunned everyone, Judge Chutkan, who presides over the Trump election interference case, is now moving forward with the trial.
She has set an August 16 hearing date, throwing a significant wrench into Trump's re-election bid.
Talking Points…
- Presidential immunity rulings
- Chutkan stunning announcement
- Analysis
One of the main reasons Judge Chutkan stalled the Trump case was the pending presidential immunity motion that Trump had filed. The case had made its way to the Supreme Court, which more or less regurgitated previous rulings while at the same time kicking the case back down to the lower court to define the alleged crime committed by Donald Trump.
News outlets and the Democrats went ballistic over the ruling, but there was nothing new in the opinion released in the majority decision. The court just reaffirmed previous rulings by the Supreme Court on this issue, some of which date back to the Nixon administration. Contrary to the dissenting opinion by Justice Sotomayor, the ruling would not give immunity to any president if they tried to use a SEAL Team to assassinate a political opponent.
This was blatant fearmongering by Sotomayor and every Democrat who pitched the same narrative. But because the court sent the case back to the lower courts, most of us assumed the election interference case would be delayed until litigation was completed in the presidential immunity case. On Saturday, however, a bombshell announcement hit that Judge Chutkan would move forward.
On Saturday, Judge Chutkan announced that a status conference hearing would be held on August 16 at 10:00 a.m. Both sides have until August 9 to file their status reports for the hearing and to schedule possible "pretrial proceedings moving forward."
In her filing, Judge Chutkan also stated, "If necessary, the parties may explain any disagreements in separate sections of the report." I would expect that Trump's team will continue to argue that all prosecutions should be delayed until after the election, but based on her previous comments, I really don't think Chutkan cares very much about the election and how the trial will impact it.
When this hearing takes place, Chutkan is expected to release a full schedule of hearings leading up to the main trial.
The final issue addressed in Chutkan's filing was Trump's motion to dismiss the indictment, which she denied. However, she did note that Trump could file a new motion "once all issues of immunity have been resolved."
Now, I need to be clear: it is still not likely that the trial itself will be held before the election, but the fact that Chutkan is now moving forward means that Trump is going to have to deal with the press from these hearings during the election cycle, something that he was hoping to avoid. Any negative ruling against Trump will mean positive press for Kamala Harris as well as ammunition for Democrats to use against Trump during this election cycle.
While I still believe the case will not be held before the election, there is no telling what Chutkan has up her sleeve regarding this August 16 hearing. There is the potential for her to just deny any Trump motions and then push forward with the case within six to eight weeks, but again, that is a longshot. This hearing date also means that Chutkan, regardless of the outcome of the election, will do everything in her power to get this case into a courtroom before inauguration day if Trump wins.
She knows that if Trump wins the election, this case will be dead once he is sworn in, and I doubt she wants to risk Trump getting a walk in this case.
