What happened with the obstruction charge?
Trump is charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, which refers to the joint session of Congress held Jan. 6 to certify Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election. The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would consider a case challenging the use of the obstruction charge against a former police officer who joined the mob at the Capitol.
Trump’s lawyers could try to make the argument that Trump’s case cannot go forward until the Supreme Court rules on the scope of the obstruction offense, which potentially could affect both the obstruction charge and a related conspiracy charge against Trump.
At least two other Jan. 6 defendants convicted of the obstruction charge have asked to cancel sentencing hearings and put them off until after the Supreme Court rules on the issue.
Immunity. The Supreme Court is also being asked to consider whether a former president immune from federal prosecution. Chutkan rejected the Trump team’s arguments that an ex-president could not be prosecuted over acts that fall within the official duties of the job.
After Trump’s lawyers appealed, special counsel Jack Smith’s team sought a quick, once-and-for-all resolution, asking the Supreme Court this week to not only consider that question but to fast-track a decision so the case can continue along the current schedule.
The Supreme Court has said it would decide quickly whether or not it will hear the case. Smith’s team also asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to expedite a decision of its own on presidential immunity.
That appeals court late Wednesday agreed to expedite the case, setting deadlines for briefs to be filed between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2. But the appeals court has yet to set a date for when it will hear arguments.
Could other criminal cases reach trial before the election?
It’s possible.
The other criminal case brought by Smith charges Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Florida estate and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back. The trial is scheduled for May 20. But the judge in that case has signaled an openness to revisiting the trial date at a pretrial conference set for March.
A separate case on charges that Trump falsified business records in connection with hush money payments to a porn actress is set to go to trial March 25 in New York state court, but that date isn’t set in stone either. Judge Juan Manuel Merchan said in September that he would rather stick to the original schedule for now and wait until the next pretrial hearing in February to see if “there are any actual conflicts” requiring a delay.
No trial date has been set in Fulton County, Georgia, where the district attorney’s office has charged Trump with trying to subvert that state’s election in 2020. Prosecutors have asked for an August trial date, but his lawyer has said it would amount to “election interference” to stage a trial then.
Why do trial dates matter?
The trial dates carry enormous political ramifications. If Trump was the GOP nominee and won election next November, for instance, he presumably could use his authority as head of the executive branch to try to order a new attorney general to dismiss the federal cases or he potentially could seek a pardon for himself.
Smith’s team is looking to secure convictions and sentences in the coming year before that election. In a recent filing in the election subversion case, Smith’s team said the “public has a strong interest in this case proceeding to trial in a timely manner.”
Trump’s team has accused Smith of trying to rush the case through for political reasons. Trump’s lawyers told an appeals court this week that “the prosecution has one goal in this case: To unlawfully attempt to try, convict, and sentence President Trump before an election in which he is likely to defeat President Biden.” —ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
AND ERICK TUCKER