WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — Special counsel Jack Smith was granted more time on Friday before having to give an outline on the next steps his office is taking in the 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee.
The delay pushes the case proceedings further into the thick of the presidential race, as Trump vies for the Oval Office against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
The D.C. case is one of several legal hurdles facing the former president, who became a convicted felon in May.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered both parties to submit a joint status report that proposes “a schedule for pretrial proceedings moving forward” by Aug. 9 and set a pretrial meeting for Aug. 16 to determine how the case should proceed.
But on Thursday, prosecutors asked to have until Aug. 30 to file another joint status report and to delay the status conference hearing until next month.
Chutkan granted that request on Friday and pushed back the pretrial meeting to Sept. 5.
Prosecutors asked for this delay to further examine the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month, which found that presidents are granted full immunity from criminal charges for any official “core constitutional” acts, though they have no immunity for any unofficial acts.
In the report, prosecutors wrote that “the Government continues to assess the new precedent set forth last month in the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States, including through consultation with other Department of Justice components.”
“Although those consultations are well underway, the Government has not finalized its position on the most appropriate schedule for the parties to brief issues related to the decision,” Smith’s office wrote.
“The Government therefore respectfully requests additional time to provide the Court with an informed proposal regarding the schedule for pretrial proceedings moving forward,” they added.
Lawyers for Trump did not object to the prosecutors’ Thursday extension request.
Rejection of immunity claim
The election subversion case was on pause for months while the former president’s immunity claim played out in the courts. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously rejected Trump’s immunity claim back in February, prompting the former president to take the presidential immunity fight to the nation’s highest court.
But the July 1 Supreme Court ruling forced prosecutors to reexamine how they want the election subversion case to go forward.
Chutkan is now tasked with determining whether Trump’s alleged conduct regarding the 2020 election results constitutes “official” presidential acts.
Trump was indicted in August 2023 on four counts relating to his alleged role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
He was charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S.; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and has denied wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, the former president was found guilty in a New York court in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. His sentencing was originally scheduled for mid-July, but has been delayed until at least September following the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.
