
Takeaways from Donald Trump’s election interference court hearing
CNN
It didn’t take long after Thursday’s hearing in the federal election subversion case against Donald Trump – the first proceeding before Judge Tanya Chutkan since the Supreme Court granted the former president some immunity in the prosecution – for the trial judge to decide a schedule for the next steps in the case that lets prosecutors make public new evidence before the 2024 election.
It didn’t take long after Thursday’s hearing in the federal election subversion case against Donald Trump – the first proceeding before Judge Tanya Chutkan since the Supreme Court granted the former president some immunity in the prosecution – for the trial judge to decide a schedule for the next steps in the case that lets prosecutors make public new evidence before the 2024 election. Chutkan made clear that a potential trial date is far off, but she issued a scheduling order Thursday afternoon to push the case forward and tackle the question of presidential immunity following the Supreme Court’s July ruling — allowing prosecutors to issue a filing later this month, with supporting evidence, to defend special counsel Jack Smith’s reworked indictment that was handed up last week. During the hearing, Chutkan previewed her thinking on how the case should advance. She was skeptical of the Trump team’s request that she first decide whether the then-Vice President Mike Pence-related allegations in the indictment were immune, and Chutkan repeatedly stressed the discretion she believes she has for how she structures the proceedings in her courtroom. Though Thursday’s one-hour-and-15-minute hearing was mainly about process, a sharp back-and-forth she had with a Trump attorney brought attention to how the 2024 election is looming over the case. Here are takeaways from the hearing: The judge did not issue a ruling from the bench on the schedule, but she issued an order with her schedule to deal with several pretrial motions – including immunity – on Thursday afternoon.

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