Delay in Trump election interference case could move up hush money trial: legal expert

05 February 2024

Special counsel Jack Smith was hoping that the federal trial in his election interference case against former President Donald Trump would begin on March 4, but U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has announced the trial will not be starting that day.

Trump and his legal team have been trying to delay the trial — or get the case dismissed altogether — by claiming that he enjoys immunity from prosecution because he was still president in late 2020 and early 2021. Chutkan has flatly rejected that argument, stressing that Trump does not enjoy a "divine right of kings." A federal appeals court has been evaluating Trump's immunity claim but has yet to announce a decision.

MSNBC legal writer Jordan Rubin discusses the trial's delay in his February 5 column.

"Given that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel still hasn't ruled on Trump's far-fetched immunity claim," Rubin explains, "it had gotten increasingly difficult to see how the trial would go forward a month from now…. Whatever the panel decides, it will likely be further appealed up through the Supreme Court — which doesn't have to take the case. Whatever the high court decides — including whether to decide — the appeal may still be pending a month from now. "

Rubin notes that the delay with Smith's election interference case could mean that the trial in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money prosecution will start sooner rather than later.

According to Rubin, "Chutkan's order…. does…. officially open that month up for another Trump criminal trial: his state prosecution in New York, which was previously set for late March. He still has a May date in the Florida federal case, which could also be delayed; he doesn't have a date in Georgia. If the former president's lawyers were hoping to use the technical existence of the federal trial date as a reason to push off the state case, they no longer have that option."

Read Jordan Rubin's full MSNBC column at this link.

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