Former President Trump may have secured a significant win in the federal government’s election interference case against him.
First reported by the Washington Post, Trump’s politically motivated election interference trial no longer appears on the public calendar for the federal district court in Washington, D.C.
According to the outlet, proceedings in the case are currently on hold during Trump’s presidential immunity appeal ahead of the March 4 trial date. The case will end at the Supreme Court after the D.C. Circuit rules.
Chutkan has no authority to allow the case to proceed while the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals conducts its review.
U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan previously said that all proceedings would be suspended while Trump’s December 7 appeal is examined in the higher courts. The former president has agreed that the federal government does not have the authority to prosecute him regarding the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill protests while he was still in office.
In December, Special Prosecutor Jack Smith attempted to keep Trump’s trial date in stone, asking the Supreme Court to consider the appeal before letting the lower court weigh in. However, the justices declined his request.
The March 4th trial date in the case against Trump cannot be found on a searchable website for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia regarding Chutkan’s court docket. An internal master court trial calendar given out to media outlets on January 26 proves the removal of the case was recent.
On Wednesday, Chutkan said that she suspects she will not be on trial in March after she set a March 18 trial date for another defendant. She also scheduled another trial to begin on June 2, suggesting the D.C. case against Trump will be over by then.
In the meantime, Smith’s team has continued to file documents on suspended deadlines to keep the case on track for when the appeal is resolved.
Trump’s legal team requested Chutkan to hold prosecutors in contempt for continuing to file documents. The former president’s lawyers have argued that it was an effort to “weaponize the Stay to spread political propaganda” and turn over the court’s docket “into an arm of the Biden Campaign.”
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