Special Counsel Jack Smith’s election interference trial will have to wait. We don’t know when we can revisit a date because a judge put the kibosh on the trial date, which was set for March 4, until the questions concerning presidential immunity can be resolved. The DC Court of Appeals has yet to rule on that question (via NBC News):
Donald Trump's Jan. 6 trial has officially been delayed. Still waiting for a federal appeals court ruling on his claim of immunity. pic.twitter.com/T1rI4qpMEH
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) February 2, 2024
BREAKING: The judge overseeing former Pres. Trump's federal election interference trial has postponed the March 4 trial date until a new trial schedule can be set. https://t.co/wdECNAloVM pic.twitter.com/AYEgVC9nmT
— ABC News (@ABC) February 2, 2024
Former President Donald Trump's federal election interference trial in Washington, D.C., will no longer begin on March 4, Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote in a court order released on Friday. It is unclear when the trial will now start.
Chutkan's ruling comes as the D.C. Circuit Court has not yet decided on whether the former president is immune from prosecution.
"The court will set a new schedule if and when the mandate is returned," said the court order signed by Chutkan.
How long will it take? This delay could last months, according to Politico. As they rightly noted, Mr. Trump is reaping the benefits of delay:
Whether Donald Trump faces a potential prison sentence in 2024 is at the mercy of a federal appeals court that’s operating on its own schedule — at a time when every day matters.
More than 50 days have elapsed since Trump’s criminal proceedings in a Washington, D.C., trial court — on charges for attempting to subvert the 2020 election — were paused indefinitely. They won’t resume until the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and, most likely, the Supreme Court resolve the question hanging over the entire case: whether Trump, as a former president, is immune from criminal prosecution.
Even if those courts ultimately reject Trump’s immunity arguments — an outcome that most legal experts expect — the protracted delays help the former president, whose strategy across his various trials has been to drag them out for as long as possible. Lengthy delays in his federal criminal cases create the possibility that, if he wins the presidency this November, Trump could avoid the charges altogether by having the Justice Department end the prosecutions or perhaps even by pardoning himself.
Axios added that the classified document trial, also spearheaded by Mr. Smith, could be impacted by this delay:
It's now likely that the first of Trump's four criminal trials will be over New York's charges related to 2016 hush money payments, which is slated for March 25.
Judge Tanya Chutkan did not set a new date.
The expected delay in the federal 2020 election case could also push the trial closer to the November elections and could set back others, including the trial over classified documents that's set for May 20.
Catch up fast: The Jan. 6 case was paused in December while Trump appealed a lower-court's rejection of his immunity claims.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith attempted to prevent the delay by asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on whether Trump is protected by presidential immunity.
It rejected the request, meaning Trump's appeal must first get through the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. before the Supreme Court can decide if it will take up the case.
Down south, the Georgia RICO case is now fraught with ethical questions concerning the prosecution, as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis admitted that she’s been in a relationship with a top attorney on her team, Nathan Wade, where the two are alleged to have spent county funds on lavish outings and vacations. Wade’s law firm received these payments from the county and allegedly used them for other purposes. A hearing on this matter is set for later this month regarding whether Wade should be removed from the prosecution, and Ms. Willis must be present.
I’m not saying we can break out the Teflon Don moniker. Still, these developments are good news for the former president, who faces an unprecedented legal assault for simply winning an election.