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Donald Trump’s election interference case in Washington will be put on hold while the former president further pursues his claims that he is immune from prosecution, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The decision from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan raises the likelihood that Trump’s trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, currently scheduled for March 4, will be postponed as the appeal of a legally untested argument winds through the courts.
Shortly after Chutkan’s ruling, the federal appeals court in Washington granted prosecutors’ request to expedite consideration of Trump’s appeal. The appeals court set deadlines for briefs to be filed between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2, but has not yet scheduled a date for arguments.
The issue is of paramount significance to both sides given that a court ruling in Trump’s favor would presumably derail the case and because a protracted appeal could result in a significant postponement of the proceedings, including until potentially after next year’s election, that would benefit the ex-president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
Chutkan’s three-page order is the latest volley in a simmering dispute over the scope of presidential power that has the potential to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time in American history.
A Trump campaign spokesperson called the judge’s decision to pause the case “a big win for President Trump and our rule of law.”
“The constitution should not be suspended in a baseless prosecution against the leading candidate for President,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said.
After Chutkan this month turned aside Trump’s claims that he was shielded from prosecution for actions he took while fulfilling his duties as president, his lawyers asked the Washington-based appeals court to review the decision and urged the judge to freeze the case in the meantime.
But special counsel Jack Smith, in a sign of both the gravity of the issue and his determination to keep the case on schedule, sought to leapfrog the appeals court by asking the U.
