Judge sets court date for Trump election interference case

Former President Donald Trump‘s federal election interference case is back in action, with U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan setting a date for a status conference.

The D.C.-based federal judge has asked that attorneys for Trump and the government appear in court on Aug. 16 so they can prepare for the case to go to trial now that she has “regained jurisdiction” over United States v. Trump. Chutkan had paused proceedings last December pending Trump’s appeals regarding presidential immunity.

“By August 9, 2024, the parties shall confer and file a status report that proposes, jointly to the extent possible, a schedule for pretrial proceedings moving forward,” Chutkan wrote Saturday in a one-page order.

Trump is not required to be present on Aug. 16, she added.

In the same order, Chutkan denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the case on statutory grounds, but said he could file another motion “once all issues of immunity have been resolved.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sent the election interference case back to Chutkan on Friday after the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision last month that Trump and other presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for official acts they took while in office.

Chutkan will now have to interpret and apply the Supreme Court’s ruling to special counsel Jack Smith‘s election interference case against Trump. Smith charged Trump with four counts of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S., a year ago. Prosecutors allege Trump tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power by pressuring state and local officials, in an effort that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Chutkan will likely also have to determine whether the Supreme Court’s decision concerning the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, which was used in cases related to hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters, will have repercussions for Trump. There is additionally the matter of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissing Smith’s classified documents case in Florida last month after she ruled that the special counsel had been improperly appointed.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and it is unlikely the trial will take place before November’s election.