The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s cases of federal election interference has set a hearing for August 16 at 10. Trump is not required to attend.
This will be the first time in seven months that the parties will appear in Judge Tanya Chutkan’s courtroom. Chutkan also denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the case on statutory grounds. She says they can return the motion once questions about the president’s immunity are resolved.
The case has been put on hold as Trump’s legal team appealed presidential immunity all the way to the Supreme Court.
In a 6-3 ruling last month authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court found that a president has absolute immunity for acts within his basic constitutional powers and a presumption of immunity for “acts within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility.”
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on July 31, 2024 in Harrisburg, Pa.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Judge Chutkan will be responsible for applying the Supreme Court’s ruling to the allegations in Trump’s criminal case, including whether Trump’s actions were “official acts” or impeachable private conduct.
Trump pleaded not guilty last year to charges that he carried out a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election by recruiting a list of so-called “fake voters,” using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations” to recruit the vice president to “alter the election results” and promote false claims of a stolen election as the Jan. 6 riots raged — all in an effort to undermine democracy and stay in power.
The former president has denied any wrongdoing.
Trump originally faced a March 4 trial date before his appeal effectively halted the proceedings.