The Weekend Wrap: August 4, 2024

The return of Judge Chutkan

Welcome to the Weekend Wrap! Here are the week’s white collar highlights:

Trump Prosecutions

D.C. Federal Case - January 6 Allegations

Pursuant to regular court procedures, jurisdiction over the case was transferred from the Supreme Court back to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. That court, in turn, quickly sent the case back to the trial judge, Tanya Chutkan, for “further proceedings consistent with the Supreme Court’s opinion.”

Judge Chutkan, also wasting no time, issued an order yesterday setting a status hearing for August 16. She also ordered the parties to confer and file a status report by August 9, proposing (jointly, to the extent possible) a schedule for the remaining pretrial proceedings. If there are disagreements on how to proceed, which seems likely, the parties can explain those disagreements.

In addition to figuring out the effect of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, there are a number of other pending unresolved motions that have been on hold since the case was stayed last December. Judge Chutkan also denied one of those yesterday, Trump’s motion to dismiss on statutory grounds, but without prejudice to his right to re-file it after the immunity questions are resolved.

Some have been arguing Judge Chutkan should hold a “mini-trial” this fall, with both sides presenting witnesses and other evidence, to help her decide what portions of the indictment can proceed and what needs to be excluded as immune official acts. This would also serve to provide the voting public with relevant information about the allegations prior to the election, even if the trial won’t begin before then.

On the other hand, I’m not sure an evidentiary hearing will be necessary for Chutkan to decide the most of the issues. And prosecutors might prefer to have her decide based just on briefing and arguments. As a general rule, you don’t like to put your witnesses on the stand prior to trial. It gives the defense a preview of what they will say and a preliminary chance to cross-examine them, both of which will probably make the witnesses less effective at trial. Smith will be thinking solely in terms of presenting the strongest case possible at trial. That likely means avoiding extended pre-trial evidentiary hearings if possible.

We should get a better sense of how things will move forward from here after the status report on the 9th and the hearing on the 16th. Judge Chutkan has not been able to act on the case in the month since the Supreme Court announced its immunity decision. But you can bet she’s been studying it, thinking about it, perhaps consulting with colleagues, and already has some ideas about how she thinks the case should proceed.

Addendum: Late on Saturday, after the rest of this post was written and scheduled to go out, Judge Chutkan denied another one of Trump’s pending motions: a motion to dismiss for selective and vindictive prosecution. Trump’s attorneys filed this motion last year but it, like the rest of the case, had been on hold during the immunity appeal.

Judge Chutkan rejected out of hand Trump’s claims that he is being singled out for exercising his First Amendment and legal rights to challenge an election result and that the prosecution was orchestrated by President Biden to take out his political rival.

It’s no surprise Judge Chutkan denied the motion; such motions are almost never granted, and Trump’s arguments were, as she wrote, “without any support or analysis.” But the fact that she denied it with a 16-page opinion the day after she regained jurisdiction over the case indicates that she had this decision ready to go for some time. She’s certainly had plenty of time to think about all the pending motions. She may have had this and a number of other rulings ready to go for months, just waiting for when she could hit the “send” key.

In the little more than 24 hours since Judge Chutkan regained control of the case, there are certainly indications that she intends to move expeditiously.

New York State Case - Hush Money/False Business Records