Judge Chutkan determined to 'keep things moving' in Trump election case: legal expert

08 August 2024

In an early August letter, Justice Juan Merchan said that former President Donald Trump is still due to appear in court in New York City for "the imposition of sentence" in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money/falsified business records case "or other proceedings as appropriate."

It appears unlikely that the two election interference prosecutions Trump is facing — special counsel Jack Smith's federal case and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis Georgia case — will go to trial before the presidential election in November. But according to legal expert Norm Eisen, Judge Tanya Chutkan is determined to "keep things moving" with Smith's case.

In its controversial 6-3 immunity ruling in Trump v. the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that presidents enjoy absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for "official" acts but not for "unofficial" acts. And Chutkan must determine which acts are "official" and which are "unofficial" in Smith's election case.

In an article published by The Hill on August 8, reporter Rebecca Beitsch explains, "The case is back in Chutkan's hands after the Supreme Court formally sent it back to the lower courts after providing Trump a victory in determining that as a former president, he maintains broad immunity from criminal prosecution. That ended a roughly eight-month pause in the case, and Chutkan has made clear the hiatus is over."

Beitsch adds, "Just hours after the case was handed back over on Friday, she scheduled an August 16 conference to chart the course for handling numerous unresolved issues in the case — likely teeing off a discussion over whether to hold what some have deemed a minitrial."

According to Eisen, who served as Democratic counsel during Trump's first or two impeachments, Chutkan is showing that she means business.

Eisen told The Hill, "She certainly has signaled — with her rapid disposition of the selected prosecution motion, with setting a quick briefing schedule and a speedy hearing on the 16th — that she wants to keep things moving. And that is how the justice system should work."

The attorney expressed his frustration over the fact that Smith's election case has been delayed so much.

"There's no reason for further delay here," Eisen told The Hill. "It's already outrageous that the case has been delayed as long as it has. It was supposed to go to trial in March. We should have had a verdict long ago, so the least the judicial system can do is give us a minitrial to — to some extent — air the allegations and offer a determination of whether they're immune or not."

Eisen added, "I think Judge Chutkan will ultimately rule that the majority, indeed the vast majority, of the indictment consists of allegations where immunity does not apply."

Read The Hill's full report at this link.

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