The case was on hold during the appeals process, which culminated in a sweeping Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. Now the judge must decide which acts in the indictment qualify.
The judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s federal election case scheduled a hearing in Washington for Aug. 16 to discuss next steps.
After nearly eight months in limbo, former President Donald J. Trump’s federal election interference case sprang back to life on Saturday as the judge overseeing it scheduled a hearing in Washington for Aug. 16 to discuss next steps.
At the hearing, the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, will discuss with Mr. Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, how each side would like to proceed with a complicated fact-finding mission the Supreme Court ordered last month. The order was part of its landmark ruling granting Mr. Trump broad immunity against criminal prosecution for acts arising from his presidency.
A key element of that decision requires Judge Chutkan to sort through the 45-page indictment accusing Mr. Trump of plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and decide which of its many allegations can move forward to trial and which arise from official acts of his presidency and will have to be tossed out.
The upcoming hearing, in Federal District Court in Washington, will be held to hash out the details of that fact-finding process. It remains unclear at this point whether Judge Chutkan will rely solely on written briefs from the two sides or whether she will schedule a more substantial hearing to consider evidence, perhaps from witnesses involved in the case, in what could resemble a mini-trial.
While her order on Saturday scheduling the hearing for mid-August was merely a procedural step, it was the first activity of any kind in the election case since December, when the prosecution was effectively frozen in its tracks as Mr. Trump’s immunity claims worked their way first through a federal appeals court, then up to the Supreme Court.