Judge Tanya Chutkan strikes Trump’s March 4 election interference trial date from calendar

02 February 2024

Former President Donald Trump's originally scheduled date of March 4, 2024 to stand trial for alleged election interference in Washington, DC has been struck from the court's calendar while arguments in related cases are being heard by higher courts.

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District of Columbia officially vacated the March 4 trial from her docket on Friday. Politico legal correspondent Kyle Cheney tweeted that Chutkan will schedule a new trial date after a DC Circuit Court of Appeals panel — and possibly the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) — considers the former president's claim of absolute broad presidential immunity.

"The court will set a new schedule if and when the mandate is returned," Chutkan wrote in her order.

A rescheduling of the original trial date was a near-certainty, given the proximity of March 4 and the DC Circuit panel still not handing down a decision on Trump's immunity argument. Should the panel find that Trump does not enjoy broad immunity from criminal prosecution, it's likely he'll appeal to the full DC Circuit (known as an en banc motion), and up to SCOTUS if his en banc petition is unsuccessful.

Whether the full circuit or SCOTUS decides to take the case will depend on the strength of the ruling the DC Circuit panel is expected to hand down in the near future. Judges Michelle Childs, Karen Henderson and Florence Y. Pan all appeared skeptical of Trump's arguments that a president should be able to act with impunity during oral arguments last month.

While appellants usually have multiple weeks to play out the appeals process, former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told MSNBC's Chris Hayes last month that the panel could alternatively give Trump's team a deadline of just five days before putting the ball back in Judge Chutkan's court, provided SCOTUS doesn't issue a stay.

Chutkan's order cancelling the March 4 trial date means Trump's first criminal trial will be in New York City on March 25, where Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has indicted the former president on more than 30 felony counts of falsifying business records pertaining to alleged "hush money" payments to porn actress Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels). Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis may also ask to have her trial date moved up, provided the scheduled May 20 trial date for Trump's classified documents case doesn't move forward as scheduled.

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