A federal judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, on Wednesday ruled to pause former President Trump’s January 6 case as he appeals a recent decision to have the case tossed.
Trump has claimed that he was covered by “presidential immunity” on January 6 for anything remotely connected to his office, and that therefore the trial judge should dismiss the prosecution against him. The judge denied that motion and Trump appealed. Prosecutor Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to take it up now instead of waiting for an appeal to play out.
“Judge Chutkan has granted President Trump’s motion to stay proceedings pending the resolution of the appeal on President Trump’s immunity for doing his job as president and protecting our elections from fraud and abuse,” the Trump campaign announced on Wednesday, adding:
This is a big win for President Trump and our rule of law, as it derails Deranged Jack Smith’s rush to judgment strategy of interfering in the 2024 Presidential Election in support of Joe Biden’s campaign. They waited almost three years to bring this hoax ‘case’ and are now desperately trying, and failing, to rush it because they know President Trump is dominating the election.
The statement noted that the stay will “remain in effect while President Trump continues to appeal his assertion of presidential immunity, which should result in the complete dismissal of this witch hunt in its entirety.”
The original trial date had been set for March 4 — about eight months ahead of the 2024 presidential election – so it is highly questionable if the appeals decision will be resolved by then.
The stay decision comes as the Supreme Court has taken up a case that could severely impact the one against Trump. As Breitbart News reported on Wednesday:
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a man involved in events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, can be charged for obstructing an official proceeding in a case that could have significant implications for the federal government’s prosecution of Donald Trump.
The defendant, Joseph Fischer, was indicted on seven charges after January 6, but the charge in question is a count under a provision enacted after the Enron scandal for anyone who “corruptly … obstructs, influences and impedes any official proceeding,” known as 18 U.S.C. 1512.
Trump’s allies argue that the provision was clearly intended to cover the destruction of evidence related to white-collar crime and that the Supreme Court’s decision to examine this issue is bad news for U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith and the government’s broad interpretation of the statute.
“Today was a bad day for Jack Smith, and a good day for the rule of law,” former U.S. Ambassador Ken Blackwell exclusively told Breitbart News.
As The Hill noted, “It’s unclear how long the appeals process could take,” which likely forced Chutkan to admit in her decision that the trial against Trump will be delayed.
“If jurisdiction is returned to this court, it will — consistent with its duty to ensure both a speedy trial and fairness for all parties — consider at that time whether to retain or continue the dates of any still-future deadlines and proceedings, including the trial scheduled for March 4, 2024,” she wrote.
Last Friday, however, Chutkan argued that the former president does not still have immunity, as he is out of office.
“Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass, Former Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability,” she wrote.
Trump’s attorneys argued that his prosecution “criminalize
core political speech” by saying he had no right to question the 2020 election.
“The fact that the indictment alleges that the speech at issue was supposedly, according to the prosecution, ‘false’ makes no difference,” his attorneys wrote. “Under the First Amendment, each individual American participating in a free marketplace of ideas — not the federal Government — decides for him or herself what is true and false on great disputed social and political questions.”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/12/13/federal-judge-pauses-trump-january-6-case-amid-appeal/
