At Trump’s request, judge delays immunity filing in Jan. 6 prosecution

A federal judge on Monday granted Donald Trump’s lawyers’ request to push back the deadline for filing their view of whether the former president is immune from prosecution in the 2020 election subversion case until two weeks after the presidential election.

Trump’s attorneys had asked to have until Nov. 21, instead of Nov. 7, to file an up-to-180-page brief arguing why Trump’s efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory should be immune from criminal prosecution, citing disruptions caused by Hurricane Milton to the work of several of Trump’s Florida-based attorneys. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan granted the request hours later, removing the possibility of the filing landing almost immediately after next Tuesday’s contest, when officials might still be counting votes.

The blockbuster filing is expected to be key part of the criminal case against Trump, which special counsel Jack Smith is seeking to salvage after the Supreme Court’s landmark July ruling establishing that presidents generally cannot be criminally tried for their official acts, with some exceptions.

“Specifically, the impacts of the hurricane, which remain ongoing for certain counsel, have substantially slowed progress on the Response,” wrote Trump attorneys led by Todd Blanche and John Lauro. “This, in turn, has limited counsel’s ability to thoroughly consider the Court’s extensive classified and unclassified discovery order and prepare an appropriate [motion].”

Lauro and Blanche noted that Smith has continued to turn over classified evidence in the case as recently as Monday, requiring lawyers to travel to a secure facility to review them. Trump’s attorneys also asked to push back completion of arguments over the immunity issue, evidence, and a separate challenge to the special counsel’s appointment and funding, from Dec. 5 to Dec. 19, making any oral argument or decision unlikely before the New Year. Chutkan granted all the requests.

No trial date has been set, as the case is all but certain to makes its way back to the Supreme Court, and Trump is expected to end the case if he regains office. A 36-page indictment alleges that Trump conspired to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election by using knowingly false claims about election fraud to obstruct the government’s processes for collecting, counting and certifying the vote, culminating in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Prosecutors have argued that his actions were not taken in his capacity as president, but rather as a private candidate seeking to benefit his campaign.