The federal judge presiding over Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case against former President Trump has ordered a conference on Aug. 16 to determine the next steps forward.
Judge Tanya Chutkan wasted no time after she received the case back from the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled last month on the scope of Trump’s claim of presidential immunity from prosecution. The high court said that a president is immune from prosecution for official acts in office, but not unofficial ones, and remanded the case back for trial.
Now, prosecutors and Trump’s defense attorneys will confer in two weeks to determine a schedule for pretrial proceedings and discuss how the Supreme Court’s ruling should be applied in this case. Chutkan denied a defense motion to dismiss the charges against Trump but afforded the Republican candidate’s legal team an opportunity to refile the motion “once all issues of immunity have been resolved.”
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Former President Donald J. Trump, left, and Judge Tanya Chutkan. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci/United States Courts)
“By August 9, 2024, the parties shall confer and file a status report that proposes, jointly to the extent possible, a schedule for pretrial proceedings moving forward. If necessary, the parties may explain any disagreements in separate sections of the report,” Chutkan’s order states.
Open court hearings are anticipated, after which the judge will determine the extent to which the Special Counsel’s evidence can be used in the trial.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts.
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Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former…
