Jack Smith to Judge Chutkan: Trump trial schedule is yours.. In a late-night submission, neither prosecutors nor Trump’s lawyers suggested another method to finish the matter quickly.
Special counsel Jack Smith told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan Friday that she can decide whether to try Donald Trump for subverting the 2020 election.
Smith stated in a 10-page joint document with Trump’s counsel that she sets the case’s timeframe in response to Chutkan’s request for advice and a plan after the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity verdict upended the case.
“The Court’s decisions on how to manage its docket are firmly within its discretion,” prosecutors wrote late Friday night. They said they will move the matter “promptly at any time the Court deems appropriate.”
Smith advised Chutkan to address Trump’s various attempts to dismiss the lawsuit simultaneously rather than proposing a timeline. Doing so, prosecutors claimed, would advance the case.
The special counsel’s opaque posture contrasts with the urgency he urged for most of the previous year since charging Trump with various schemes to undermine Joe Biden’s appointment. He requested Chutkan to establish a rapid trial date last year, and when Trump’s immunity arguments delayed the trial, he asked the Supreme Court in December to proceed with “extraordinary” haste since “this is an extraordinary case.”
Prosecutors and the Justice Department had to recalculate after the judges ignored that demand and ruled in July that essentially insulated Trump from most of Smith’s testimony. They have company: Trump is using immunity to delay his Sept. 18 sentencing for his May hush money conviction in New York. Like Smith in the federal election case, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg deferred to the judge on Trump’s sentence delay request.
Smith declined to offer a revised election case timeline in Friday’s joint filing, while Trump’s defense team proposed extending pretrial proceedings beyond January. His attorneys also suggested long-running procedures till 2025. Trump’s team didn’t offer a trial date but predicted he’ll win and get the lawsuit thrown out.
Smith’s team got a new indictment of Trump last week that contained the same four felony charges but eliminated claims that Trump misused his authority by using the Justice Department to stay in power. The changes sought to sustain the lawsuit while complying with the Supreme Court’s immunity finding.
In their Friday night filing, Trump’s lawyers indicated that the immunity decision would prevent prosecutors from prosecuting much of the case, including their claim that Trump pressured Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to tally the electoral votes that gave Biden the win.
Trump lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche claimed that prosecutors’ case collapses without Pence’s charges.
Neither prosecutors nor the defense mentioned another possibility the case could finish quickly: If Trump wins again in November, he may call it off after being sworn in in January.
Notably, Trump’s attorneys urged delaying all litigation over prosecutors’ case against him, the gravest and most politically combustible of his four criminal cases, until after the election. Trump’s sole filing before Election Day will claim that Smith’s appointment was unlawful and that the Justice Department’s funding for Smith and his staff is illegitimate.
Chutkan has called a case conference for Thursday to consider next steps, but Trump has been excused. The parties are not seeking more hearings before the election.