Trump criminal case: August pre-trial meeting set for alleged attempt to overturn 2020 election loss

Former US president Donald Trump speaks to supporters in Washington, DC on 6 January 2021, before some of them stormed the US Capitol. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan scheduled a pre-trial
meeting on 16 August in the US criminal case accusing Donald Trump of illegally
trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, a court document showed on
Saturday.

Chutkan’s order comes a day after she regained
jurisdiction in the case, which had been on pause for nearly eight months to
allow for Trump to get his presidential immunity claim adjudicated.

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She is expected to decide in the coming weeks which
aspects of the indictment obtained by Special Counsel Jack Smith must be tossed
out, after the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents are entitled to broad
immunity for official actions taken while in office.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts
accusing him of a multi-part conspiracy to subvert his 2020 election loss.

In a court document on Saturday, Chutkan said Trump will
not be required to appear in court for the status conference on 16 August. All
parties were asked to propose a schedule for pre-trial proceedings by 9 August.

Renewed motion

Trump’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

Chutkan also denied two of Trump’s motions to dismiss the
charges against him, one on the basis of statutory grounds, and one on the
basis of vindictive and selective prosecution.

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Trump may file a renewed motion after all issues of
immunity have been resolved, she said.

The Supreme Court’s decision to take up the immunity
claim case, which it heard on its last day of arguments in April and ruled on 1
July, made it all but impossible for the criminal case to go to trial before
the 5 November US presidential election.

Chutkan previously promised to give Trump about 90 days
to prepare for trial once the case returns to her courtroom, with a trial
expected to last six to eight weeks.