Special Counsel Asks Trump 2020 Election Case to Be Rescheduled for September

CNN
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The special counsel’s office needs more time before it must detail what the Justice Department’s next steps might be in the 2020 election case against Donald Trump, which would push any action in the case to September at the earliest, just months before the presidential election.

Prosecutors with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office said Thursday they were still considering what the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this summer — granting Trump broad immunity for his official actions as president — means for the case and how it is prosecuted.

“The government is still assessing the new precedent set last month by the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump vs. United States, “including through consultations with other elements of the Department of Justice,” prosecutors wrote to Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case in Washington.

The motion marks a significant shift in federal prosecutors’ approach to the criminal case, opening the door to a postponement after a special counsel spent a year pushing to get the case to trial so voters could get answers quickly.

Smith’s action contrasts with that of Chutkan, who was ready to act immediately after the case was returned to her last week, issuing two rulings and setting a quick timetable.

Chutkan had scheduled a hearing for Aug. 16 to discuss a timeline for moving forward in the case, but prosecutors asked the judge to move that date to September.

“While these consultations are well underway, the government has not yet determined a final position on the most appropriate timetable for the parties to present their issues related to the decision,” prosecutors wrote in a statement commenting on the Supreme Court’s ruling on immunity.

According to a source familiar with their thinking, prosecutors and defense attorneys called earlier Thursday and “the defense was happy to grant them additional time.”

The two sides also spoke by phone earlier this week.