Special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday requested more time to comply with a scheduling directive from the judge overseeing President Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case, a sign that his office is still working on a Supreme Court ruling in the former president’s immunity case nearly a month later.
“The government, including in consultation with other parts of the Department of Justice, continues to evaluate the new precedent set forth in last month’s Supreme Court decision in Trump v. United States,” prosecutors wrote to Judge Tanya Chutkan in a status report filed in D.C. District Court.
“Consultations are progressing well, but the government has not made any final decisions about the optimal timeline for outlining the issues relevant to the decision,” Smith’s office said.
“Accordingly, the government respectfully requests additional time to submit to the court an informed proposal for the timeline of future pretrial proceedings.”
On July 1, the Supreme Court ruled that 78-year-old President Trump has absolute immunity from prosecution for his “official duties” while in office, leaving it to lower courts to decide what constitutes “official duties” by a sitting president.
Smith accuses Trump of “misleading the United States through fraud, deception and deception,” disrupting the electoral vote process, “obstructing the congressional proceedings on January 6th to tally and certify the presidential election results,” and conspiring to commit crimes “against the right to vote and have that vote counted.”
The former president’s campaign argues that many of Trump’s efforts were “official acts” protected by the power of his office.
Chutkan had the case handed over to him again last Friday and asked for pre-trial proceedings to be expedited.
The delay request, agreed to by Trump’s lawyers, would give the parties time to submit another joint status report to Chutkan by Aug. 30, according to the filing.
Trump argued Thursday night that the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling means the case, and all other lawsuits against him, should be immediately dismissed.
“It is clear that the Supreme Court’s historic exoneration decision calls for and demands the complete and total dismissal of all witch hunts: the January 6th hoax in Washington DC, the Manhattan District Attorney’s zombie case, the New York Attorney General’s fraud, the false allegations about women I never met (the photo of me side-by-side with my then-husband at 40 doesn’t count!), the Georgia ‘perfect’ phone call allegations, etc.,” he wrote. Authentic Social Posts.
U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon last month dismissed a federal classified documents lawsuit against President Trump on the grounds that Smith was not lawfully appointed.
Mr Smith appealed Mr Cannon’s ruling in the case.
