Judge Gives Special Counsel Room To Dump On Trump Before Election

Special counsel Jack Smith will have the chance to release new evidence in the 2020 election subversion case against former President Donald Trump in the weeks before this year’s election in November.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of Washington, D.C., released a pre-trial schedule on Thursday that said the government “shall file” an opening brief on presidential immunity by September 26.

“The bottom line is clear: Evidence in the Trump 2020 election conspiracy case could be revealed…. less than six weeks before the 2024 election,” CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane said in a post to X.

Earlier in the day, a hearing took place in which prosecutors and Trump’s team discussed how they wanted to proceed after the Supreme Court determined presidents have immunity for official acts.

Smith’s team said they needed about three weeks to file a brief on how their superseding indictment should be able to abide by the high court’s ruling in early July, according to The New York Times.

Prosecutor Thomas Windom reportedly said the government could present new information, such as FBI interviews with witnesses, in making its case that Trump broke the law outside of his official role.

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Defense lawyers argued the debate over grappling with the presidential immunity issue should wait until at least December, but Chutkan said the court was “not concerned” with the election schedule.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in the D.C. case, which got delayed as the courts weighed his presidential immunity claims. Now the judge’s schedule has deadlines for various filings through early November.

Other prosecutions have been levied against Trump as he runs again for office, although Smith’s second case against him — one related to classified documents — was dismissed by a federal judge in Florida.

A jury convicted Trump as part of a New York hush-money case in May. Sentencing is set to happen later this month, but Trump is trying to use the high court’s immunity ruling to get the case tossed.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is spearheading a separate 2020 election case against Trump in Georgia, but that prosecution is also unlikely to reach the trial stage before the election.