Former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election case in Washington will temporarily be on hold while Trump’s legal team focuses on pursuing his claim that he is immune from prosecution.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled in a three-page order to freeze “further proceedings that would move this case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation on the defendant.”
The judge added that if the case returns to her table, she will “consider at that time whether to retain or continue the dates of any still-future deadlines and proceedings, including the trial scheduled for March 4, 2024.”
Trump requested the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn Chutkan’s decision on his argument that he is immune from prosecution for actions he did while he served as president. In her order, Judge Chutkan said that the office of the President “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”
Trump’s defense lawyers wrote on Wednesday that the prosecution on the case has only one goal “to unlawfully attempt to try, convict, and sentence President Trump before an election in which he is likely to defeat President Biden.”
“This represents a blatant attempt to interfere with the 2024 presidential election and to disenfranchise the tens of millions of voters who support President Trump’s candidacy.”
“This is a big win for President Trump and our rule of law,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement, adding that the ruling “derails” Special Counsel Jack Smith’s “rush to judgment strategy of interfering in the 2024 presidential election.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith requested the US Supreme Court to expedite its decision on Trump’s immunity question. The court has indicated that it would decide quickly if they would discuss the case, and even ordered Trump’s team to respond by December 20 but did not give any hints on what it would do.
A Supreme Court trial usually lasts several months, from the time the justices agree to hear it until it reaches a final decision. Smith is asking the court to move with unusual, but not unprecedented, speed.
If the court decides not to step in at this point, Trump’s appeal will follow the proceedings at the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Trump has long pleaded not guilty against felony accounts that accuse him of attempting to defraud the United States and obstruct Congress through schemes to reverse his election loss against Biden.
I distinctly remember Hilary Clinton telling Joe Biden to never ‘concede’ the outcome of the election if Pres Trump won his second term. This was before they cooked up the COVID flu so at that point it was most assuredly that Trump would win because most sane people actually liked their lives and the economy while he was president. Oh and wasn’t there a certain fat black cow from GA who insisted everywhere she went and everyone she talked to all over the television and at the pulpit she was truly fairly elected as the governor of GA but was cheated out of the opportunity?? Trump’s case is so ridiculous I cannot believe it’s even happening. It’s like the alternate universe took over and turned the world into INSANE VILLE.