'In charge': Judge rejects Trump’s attempt to delay election case

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08 August 2023

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday quickly rejected Donald Trump’s legal team’s attempt to delay the trial in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of the ex-president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Smith had asked Judge Chutkan for a protective order, arguing – based on evidence – that the defendant, Donald Trump, was trying to litigate the case not in the courtroom but in the public square. Trump’s attorneys rejected the DOJ’s request for the protective order, falsely asserting it would violate Trump’s First Amendment rights.

Trump himself defiantly declared Monday night he would continue to say whatever he pleased, which to date has included apparent attacks on Special Counsel Smith and the DOJ, Judge Chutkan, the Biden administration, and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Judge Chutkan told both the Special Counsel and Trump’s legal team to set a date for a hearing for this week.

On Tuesday DOJ declared they are available any day or time, but Trump’s attorneys declared they would not be available this week for a hearing on the order, and asked for a date to be set next week.

Tuesday afternoon Judge Chutkan, who had been very specific in her instructions, set a date for Friday of this week, effectively refusing Trump’s attorneys’ request, The Messenger‘s Adam Klasfeld reports:

“At 5:24 p.m. ET, Judge Chutkan set the hearing for Friday morning at 10 a.m., in the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C. Her order did not mention Trump’s attorneys’ request for an adjournment and excused the former president’s attendance.”

On social media Klasfeld adds, “Notably, Judge Chutkan‘s order doesn’t even mention Trump’s lawyers’ bid to delay the hearing. She just casually — and tacitly — rejects by setting the proceedings before the end of the week, as planned.”

MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin observed, “is in charge, and she is making sure everyone knows it.”

Less than one hour earlier, Trump had posted an attack against Judge Chutkan on his social media platform, attempting to tie the jurist to Hunter Biden. He also falsely declared the case a “free speech indictment of me by my political opponent, Crooked Joe Biden’s Department of InJustice.”

CNN calls it “just another example of how she wants to move this case along quickly.”

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