The federal judge in Washington, D.C., presiding over Donald Trump’s election interference case on Saturday rejected a defense request to dismiss the indictment, which argued the former president was charged with vendetta and political motives.
Judge Tanya Chutkan’s ruling marks her first substantive order since the case was returned to her hands on Friday following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in July that granted broad immunity to former presidents and narrowed the scope of special counsel Jack Smith’s lawsuit against Trump.
In a motion to dismiss the charges, his lawyers argued that Trump was prejudiced because he was indicted while others who challenged the election results avoided criminal charges. Trump, a Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election, also suggested President Joe Biden and the US Department of Justice launched the prosecution to block his reelection.
But Chutkan denied both allegations, saying Trump was not charged simply for contesting the election results, but for “knowingly making false statements in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy and to subvert the election certification process.” He also said Trump’s lawyers had misread news media articles they cited in arguing the charges were political in nature.
“After consideration [the] “Given the defendants’ evidence and arguments, the court cannot conclude that the defendants have met their burden of proving actual or presumption of vendetta and therefore there is no basis to dismiss this action on those grounds,” Judge Chutkan wrote in his order.
She also on Saturday scheduled a status conference for Aug. 16 to discuss future action on the case.
The four-count indictment, filed in August 2023, charges that Trump conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden, through a variety of schemes, including pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to block the formal certification of the electoral votes.
Trump’s legal team has argued that he is immune from prosecution because he is a former president, and the case has been on hold since December while the courts hear his appeal.
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In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the president enjoys absolute immunity with respect to his primary constitutional duties and is presumed immune from prosecution for all other official duties. The Court remanded the case back to Chutkan to determine which of the conduct alleged in the indictment should remain part of the indictment and which should be thrown out.
