Judge Tanya Chutkan granted special counsel Jack Smith‘s request on Friday to delay proceedings in his election interference case against former President Donald Trump.
Chutkan postponed a hearing, initially scheduled for next week, until Sept. 5, according to a court order. The judge also pushed out the next deadline for court filings from Friday until the end of August, meaning the first substantive activity in the case likely will not occur until that time.
Both delays came in response to a surprise request from government prosecutors on Thursday to slow proceedings following the Supreme Court thrusting the case into a state of uncertainty with its ruling in July on presidential immunity.
Prior to the ruling, Smith had been eager to move the case along, repeatedly moving to expedite the case. At one point last year, for example, Smith asked the high court to step in and rule on immunity before the lower court had made a decision on it, anticipating that Trump would eventually take his argument to the Supreme Court anyways. The justices rejected Smith’s request.
Prosecutors for Smith wrote Thursday in their postponement request that they are continuing to “assess the new precedent set forth last month in the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States … including through consultation with other Department of Justice components.”
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The prosecutors said those consultations were “well underway” but that the DOJ had not yet finalized its position on how to proceed with Trump’s case.
This story is developing.
