BREAKING: Federal judge hands Trump temporary victory in Jack Smith’s election interference case

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From Fox News: Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan will not hold the trial for former President Donald Trump on charges stemming from special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation until after the 2024 presidential election.

Chutkan held a status hearing Thursday morning in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in which lawyers for former President Trump pleaded not guilty on his behalf related to charges from Smith’s new indictment after the Supreme Court ruled a president is immune from prosecution for official acts in office.

In an order Thursday afternoon, Chutkan set deadlines for replies and paperwork from federal prosecutors and Trump’s legal team for Nov. 7th — after Election Day.

Trump did not appear in court Thursday. His lawyers pleaded not guilty on his behalf. Smith was in court Thursday morning.

Smith recently filed a new indictment against Trump, after the Supreme Court’s ruling that gave presidential immunity for official acts.  Smith simply amended the charges against Trump to reframe the allegations, in an effort to sidestep the Supreme Court ruling.

Smith claims that Trump pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject legitimate electoral votes, and charged him with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.

Law professor and legal analyst Jonathan Turley wrote, “The D.C. prosecution of Trump by the Special Counsel was just moved beyond the election. That could make this election the largest jury verdict in history since a Trump victory would make any trial unlikely. Jack Smith may never see a jury in the case.”

Despite that Chutkan has delayed the trial until after the November 5 election date, some concerns still exist.

Mollie Hemingway, editor at The Federalist, noted, “Left-wing judge Tanya Chutkan says that the DOJ and Jack Smith’s patently obvious efforts to meddle in the 2024 election are not her concern. Literally laughs at a mention of how the Supreme Court rebuked their efforts.”

Journalist Julie Kelly, who attended the hearing, offered additional details:

NEW: As I predicted, Judge Chutkan agrees to Jack Smith’s “irregular” (her words) request to file an “opening brief” to explain why new indictment isn’t covered under SCOTUS immunity opinion and sets a number of deadlines leading up to–and 2 days after–the election. Unreal…

Chutkan again proves she is lying about the presidential election playing no role in her decision making. She packs in months’ worth of substantive motions into a few weeks ending with the week of the election.

Trump’s lawyers are expected to address SCOTUS opinions in both immunity and Fischer as it relates to the NEW indictment filed just last week by the end of October.

Chutkan also argued in court today that the deadline for Trump to file a motion to dismiss based on the unconstitutional appointment of Jack Smith passed last October. When John Lauro, Trump’s lawyer, noted that the superseding indictment changed the previous schedule AND that both Judge Cannon and Justice Thomas had since weighed in on Smith’s unlawful appointment, Chutkan–after a few snide comments and smirks–consented only to allow defense to file a motion for “leave,” meaning ask permission to file the motion to dismiss.

Do not be shocked if Chutkan schedules a hearing in mid or late November — even if Trump wins.

“Still trying to wrap my head around the fact that today Judge Chutkan, presiding over the most important presidential immunity case in history, said the case is not about the presidency of the United States,” Kelly wrote.

Kelly continued in another post:

You’ll see lots of “legal analysts” who absolutely hammered Judge Cannon as partisan and demand her recusal absolutely SWOON over Judge Chutkan’s performance today. The difference in the 2 judges couldn’t be starker.

Cannon was always overly prepared, came into court with a large binder of documents, asked pointed questions for which she wanted a direct answer, clearly knew the subject matter inside and out, and didn’t indulge drama in the courtroom. She kept her composure even when being routinely disrespected by Jack Smith’s prosecutors.

Chutkan on the other hand is a stage artist. She swooped into court ready for her cameo. As far as I could tell, the only document she had in front of her was the recent status report filed by both sides last week.

She could not cite any meaningful passage from SCOTUS immunity order—as I said this morning, it’s not clear if she read it at all.

She rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, smirked and scoffed out loud at some of Trump’s lawyers statements. She did this in the last 2 hearings—all she wants to do is play to the crowd unaware of how ignorant, partisan, and downright childish she appears.

And she appears poised to permit the special counsel to file an “opening brief” to defend the latest iteration of the J6 indictment even though there is no procedure that allows such a filing.

Two totally different judges—one who takes her duty and oath of office seriously while understanding the gravity of the lawfare against a former president and one who DGAF about rule of law, due process, or even the Supreme Court.

But guess which one is the darling of the media?

One social media user asked, “Can they still get the trial completed before Trump is sworn in?”

Kelly replied: No. And here is Chutkan’s frustration and truly reckless game. Court orders dealing with immunity are automatically appealed before trial. This is what happened when she hastily issued her 1st immunity order in Dec 2023–all proceedings were halted until SCOTUS published its opinion on July 1.

So what she indicated today by saying she will be reversed “no matter what she decides” is she will conclude the Trump-Pence comms were private not official conduct–contradicting SCOTUS view.

Her order will again move through appellate and SCOTUS and proceedings again put on hold for months. But it doesn’t matter because she will have achieved her goal of injecting this issue into the headlines on a weekly basis until the election and beyond EVEN IF HE WINS.

The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.

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