A case in which former US president Donald Trump has been accused of election interference was put on hold on Wednesday after US District Judge Tanya Chutkan granted him a pause as he pursues claims that he is immune from prosecution.
The decision increases the likelihood that the trial, currently scheduled for March 4, will be postponed as the appeal winds through the courts.
Shortly after Chutkan’s ruling, the federal appeals court in Washington granted a request by prosecutors to expedite consideration of Trump’s appeal.
Photo: Bloomberg
The appeals court set deadlines for briefs to be filed between Saturday next week and Jan. 2, but has not yet scheduled a date for arguments.
A ruling in Trump’s favor would likely derail the case and a protracted appeal could result in a significant postponement of the proceedings, including until potentially after next year’s US presidential election.
Chutkan’s three-page order is the latest volley in a simmering dispute over the scope of presidential power that has the potential to be decided by the US Supreme Court for the first time in US history.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called the judge’s decision to pause the case “a big win for president Trump and our rule of law.”
“The constitution should not be suspended in a baseless prosecution against the leading candidate for president,” Cheung said.
After Chutkan this month turned aside Trump’s claims that he was shielded from prosecution for actions he took while fulfilling his duties as president, his lawyers asked the appeals court to review the decision and urged the judge to freeze the case in the meantime.
However, special counsel Jack Smith sought to leapfrog the appeals court by asking the Supreme Court on Monday to fast-track an opinion on the immunity question that would permit the prosecution to proceed.
The Supreme Court indicated that it would decide quickly whether to take the case up, ordering Trump’s lawyers to respond by Dec. 20, but it did not signal what it would ultimately do.
However, it said it would review a charge of obstruction of an official proceeding that has been brought against more than 300 participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, which would potentially also apply to Trump.
Joseph Fischer, a former police officer who is among more than 300 people charged with obstruction at the riot at the US Capitol, has sought to get the charge dismissed, with a knock-on effect for all the cases — including Trump’s.
A conviction under that charge would carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
A District Court judge agreed to throw out the obstruction charge on the grounds that the law was intended to prosecute financial crimes following the Enron scandal and did not apply to Fischer’s conduct on Jan. 6, 2021.
That ruling was reversed by an appeals court.
The Supreme Court is to hear Fischer’s appeal next year and is expected to issue a ruling by the end of its term in June — about four months before the Nov. 4 presidential election in which Trump is expected to face US President Joe Biden again.
The argument that Trump is immune from prosecution has for months been seen as perhaps the most weighty and legally consequential objection made by his lawyers ahead of trial.
No former US president has ever been prosecuted before.
However, Chutkan rejected Trump’s arguments, saying the office of the president “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”
Her latest order pauses any “further proceedings that would move this case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation on defendant.”
She left open the possibility of preserving the current trial date if the case returns to her court, saying that date and other deadlines were being paused rather than canceled.
She also said her ruling had no bearing on the enforcement of a gag order placing restrictions on Trump’s speech outside of court.
Smith’s team had asked 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.
While simultaneously asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, Smith’s team had also asked the appeals court to expedite its consideration of Trump’s appeal.
Trump’s lawyers accused prosecutors of trying to rush the case through before the election.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Smith was trying to interfere with the election by rushing to the Supreme Court on the question of immunity — something he said “is so basic to America that it should be automatic.”
He echoed that sentiment at a campaign event in Iowa, saying prosecutors had waited until “they saw I was hot” to bring a case.
A Supreme Court case usually lasts several months, from the time the justices agree to hear it until a final decision.
If the justices decline to step in now, Trump’s appeal would continue at the appeals court.
Smith said even a rapid appellate decision might not get to the Supreme Court in time for review and final word before its traditional summer break.
Additional reporting by AFP
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