The Trentonian (Trenton, NJ)

Judge pauses Trump case deadlines as appeal is heard

Donald Trump’s 2020 election interferen­ce case in Washington will be put on hold while the former president further pursues his claims that he is immune from prosecutio­n, a judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, agreed in a threepage order to pause any “further proceeding­s that would move this case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation on Defendant” as an appeals court considers Trump’s immunity arguments.

But she left open the possibilit­y of keeping the current trial date of March 4, 2024, if the case returns to her court, saying that date and other deadlines were being put on pause rather than canceled. She also said her order had no bearing on the enforcemen­t of a gag order placing restrictio­ns on Trump’s speech outside of court.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team this week asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up and rule quickly on whether Trump can be prosecuted on charges accusing him of illegally scheming to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.

Later Monday, the justices indicated they would decide quickly whether to hear the case, ordering Trump’s lawyers to respond by Dec. 20. The court’s brief order did not signal what it ultimately would do.

Trump appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after Chutkan turned aside his argument that he is shielded from prosecutio­n for actions he took while fulfilling his duties as president. In her order, Chutkan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that the office of the president “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”

Smith is attempting to bypass the appeals court, the usual next step in the process, and have the Supreme Court take up the matter directly in the hopes of keeping the March 4 trial date in place.

Smith’s team had told Chutkan not to pause the case, saying the judge could continue to resolve issues unrelated to the appeal while the immunity claim is pending in appeals courts. Prosecutor­s said they would “continue to meet every pretrial deadline the court has set for it,” so that the case could swiftly move to trial if the higher courts reject Trump’s immunity argument.

A Supreme Court case usually lasts several months, from the time the justices agree to hear it until a final decision. Smith is asking the court to move with unusual, but not unpreceden­ted, speed.

Nearly 50 years ago, the justices acted within two months of being asked to force President Richard Nixon to turn over Oval Office recordings in the Watergate scandal. The tapes were then used later in 1974 in the corruption prosecutio­ns of Nixon’s former aides.

It took the high court just a few days to effectivel­y decide the 2000 presidenti­al election for Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore.

If the justices decline to step in at this point, Trump’s appeal would continue at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Smith said even a rapid appellate decision might not get to the Supreme Court in time for review and final word before the court’s traditiona­l summer break.

Trump faces four criminal prosecutio­ns in four different cities. He is charged in Florida with illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and faces a state prosecutio­n in Georgia that accuse him of trying to subvert that state’s 2020 presidenti­al election and a New York case that accuses him of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress.

Also, the district attorney prosecutin­g Trump over efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia says she has a duty to file charges against anyone who violates the law and that it’s a “silly notion” that the former president’s case should be paused just because he is running for office.

In an interview this week with The Associated Press, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis declined to say whether she or her team has been in touch with Smith. She also raised the possibilit­y that more of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the Georgia case could take plea deals, further paring down the number who could go on trial with him.

Willis is seeking an August trial date for Trump and his co-defendants, a time frame that would put the current front-runner for the Republican presidenti­al nomination in court defending himself in the months, weeks and even days leading up to the November general election. Trump’s lawyer has said that if Trump is the nominee, that would be “the most effective election interferen­ce in the history of the United States.”

Willis brushed off that idea, pointing out that prosecutor­s all over the country are always investigat­ing people for various crimes and that they do not stop doing so just because someone runs for office.

“If the prosecutor finds that they violated the law, they have an ethical duty to bring forth charges and so this is a silly notion to me that because one runs from office that your criminal case would stop,” she said.

Willis has alleged that Trump, lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others participat­ed in a wide-ranging scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election after voters elected Democrat Joe Biden as president.

Four of the 19 people charged have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutor­s.

Trump, Giuliani, Meadows and the others remaining have pleaded not guilty.

Willis and her team have said they want to have a single trial for the rest of the defendants.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the case, has expressed skepticism about the idea of trying too many people at once. He said earlier this month that even 12 people at once could be a stretch.