Former President Trump’s federal election interference charges were formally sent back before a judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday to determine how they will be heard, following the Supreme Court’s decision last month to grant immunity to former presidents.
The case has been frozen for months due to President Trump’s assertion of immunity, but U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is now ready to set a timeline and announce next steps.
The case is unlikely to go to trial before this year’s presidential election, when President Trump hopes to retake the White House and dismantle the prosecution.
But the justices are considering how to apply the Supreme Court’s new immunity standard to the details of the Republican candidate’s indictment, potentially setting up evidentiary hearings that will effectively be a mini-trial before November.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision gives the former president and other Republicans presumed immunity, at least for acts of official conduct, and likely leads to the dismissal of some of the four charges brought against him that accused him of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty.
Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, regained jurisdiction over the case on Friday after the Supreme Court formally ruled earlier in the day. The decision President Trump’s immunity appeal.
The justices announced their decision on July 1, but court rules allow them 32 days to send the case back to a lower court. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has repeatedly urged prosecutors to speed up the process, did not seek to expedite the process.
After the Supreme Court sent the decision to the D.C. Circuit, the court immediately Passed We descend another rung of the ladder and return to Chutkan’s court.
It is unclear what the next steps will be, but Trump’s team has argued throughout this and other criminal prosecutions that prosecutions should not proceed until after the election.
Chutkan had previously said the election would not affect the timing and rejected the former president’s attempt to delay it, raising expectations that the case would be heard by November unless the Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump’s immunity appeal.
