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Appeals court denies Donald Trump immunity in DC election case

The federal judge overseeing Special Counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 case against Trump in DC was the latest victim of “swatting.”Judge Chutkan’s house was swatted after police received a fake emergency phone call about activity at her residence on Sunday night.“A home owned by the judge overseeing the federal election subversion case against former president Donald Trump was targeted by a fake emergency call Sunday night, the latest in a spate of similar false swatting reports at the homes of public officials in recent days.” AP reported.“Police responded around 10 p.m. to a report of a shooting at a Washington,...

Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 @julie_kelly2 Jack Smith has filed his reply brief with DC appellate court to oppose Trump's appeal of Judge Chutkan's order denying presidential immunity in J6 case.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith asked a judge on Wednesday to bar Donald Trump's lawyers from injecting politics into the former president's trial on charges that he schemed to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Smith's office told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in a 20-page filing that Trump's lawyers should be prevented from “raising irrelevant political issues or arguments in front of the jury,” including that the prosecution against him is vindictive and selective or was coordinated by President Joe Biden. “In addition to being wrong, these allegations are irrelevant to the jury’s determination of the...

Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a motion Wednesday morning seeking to prevent former President Donald Trump from claiming in his federal case that he was targeted for political prosecution by President Joe Biden as a form of “election interference.” Donald Trump, unironically, stands accused of “election interference” in connection to his legal and constitutionally protected election challenges over the 2020 election. Smith said in his motion that Trump should be barred from “introducing evidence, making arguments, or framing questions to advance a theory of selective or vindictive prosecution.” Judge Chutkan, an anti-Trump jurist who has consistently sided with the state’s...

Obama-appointed District Judge Tanya Chutkan paused former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election trial schedule while the appeal for his presidential immunity claim is pending. In early December, Chutkan rejected Trump’s bid to have his case dismissed based on presidential immunity, prompting Trump to appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Chutkan agreed Wednesday to pause pre-trial deadlines and further proceedings pending the appeals court’s decision. “[T]he court agrees with both parties that Defendant’s appeal automatically stays any further proceedings that would move this case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation on Defendant,” Chutkan wrote Wednesday. Special Counsel...

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has asked the Supreme Court to step in and decide the issue of presidential immunity regarding former President Donald Trump’s federal election interference charges. Smith is asking the court to immediately resolve the issue, to prevent any delay of the March 4 trial date. “Respondent’s appeal of the ruling rejecting his immunity and related claims, however, suspends the trial of the charges against him, scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024,” the special counsel wrote in a filing Monday. “It is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court...

DC Circuit largely vacates Chutkan's restraining order

In a Monday court order, Judge Tanya Chutkan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia denied a motion from Donald Trump’s team to subpoena records they said were missing from the archived records of the January 6 Select Committee. These are records that were reportedly not turned over after the investigation was complete. Trump’s team, in an October 11 filing, requested permission to issue subpoenas to the Archivist of the United States at the National Archives and Records Administration, the Clerk of the House of Representatives, the Committee on House Administration, Special Counsel to the President Richard...

This is what tyranny looks like. On Monday night lawless Obama Judge Tanya Chutkan refused the Trump defense team’s efforts to subpoena members of the House January 6 Committee for testimony. Why? Why would she possibly do this? Obviously, the far left judge does not want the truth to be revealed about January 6 and she will not allow the Trump team to prove their case. This is a completely lawless court. The Trump defense team alleges that documents, including transcripts of testimonies, are missing from the Jan. 6 Subcommittee. Judge Chutkan WILL NOT allow Trump access to these lost...

Former President Donald Trump on Monday tested a gag order imposed on him by a Washington, D.C., judge by saying those prosecuting him in a federal case involving alleged attempts to subvert the 2020 election will end up in a "mental institution" with "Trump Derangement Syndrome." U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District of Columbia on Oct. 29 reimposed the gag order on Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, prohibiting him from publicly criticizing prosecutors and likely witnesses in the case, as well as members of the court's staff. Trump has said the gag order...

Two analysts have noted that special counsel Jack Smith might be on shaky legal ground in his federal election-related case against former President Donald Trump.Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, said that the Trump charge of corruptly obstructing an official proceeding hasn't been "extensively litigated" over the past several decades, adding that a ruling could come on whether it is appropriate in the former president's case.Multiple defendants who were charged in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach have "argued that Congress certifying the electoral votes was not an 'official proceeding' and courts have universally rejected that argument," she...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court temporarily lifted a gag order on Donald Trump in his 2020 election interference case in Washington on Friday — the latest twist in the legal fight over the restrictions on the former president’s speech. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision puts a hold on the limited gag order to give the judges time to consider Trump’s request for a longer pause on the restrictions while his appeals play out. The appeals court said the temporary pause “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits”...

I'll have a column explaining it all after order is filed. You will see much caterwauling by corporate media types and usual suspects like Weissmann and McQuade how Cannon is doing Trump's bidding. But the blame lies SOLELY at the feet of DOJ. Jack Smith brought 2 unprecedented federal cases against a former president within two months of each other. He asked for, and was granted, an expedited trial schedule in D.C. Judge Chutkan gave Trump 7 months to prepare for trial--the typical J6 case goes to trial over a year after indictment. The classified docs trial represents major obstacles...

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Donald Trump’s election interference case, threw the former president a lifeline during a late Sunday filing. Newsweek reported that Chutkan turned away a request from the Department of Justice to put Trump in jail for violating a gag order she re-imposed on him. In a footnote reinstating the gag order, the judge denied federal prosecutors’ request to incorporate her order into the conditions of Trump’s release. “Even assuming that request is procedurally proper, the court concludes that granting it is not necessary to effectively enforce the order at this time,” she wrote....

A federal judge on Sunday reinstated a gag order she imposed on Donald Trump in the Washington case accusing him of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, denying his bid for a stay pending appeal. The order prohibited Trump from targeting the special counsel prosecuting his case or witnesses who might be called to testify about his efforts to upend his election loss. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed the gag order at the Justice Department's request. She temporarily lifted it on Oct. 20 after Trump's lawyers appealed. And she reversed that decision on Sunday evening, according to the...

This week at the request of Special Counsel Jack Smith, Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed a "gag order" on former President Donald Trump. She cited the risk that "allowing Trump unfettered freedom of speech could taint the jury pool and undermine the Special Counsel's efforts to gain a conviction against the leader of a huge domestic terrorist cell that is trying to subvert the authority of President Biden. Trump's contention that preventing him from speaking about a rigged 2020 election is itself an attempt to rig the 2024 election is rejected." Smith hailed the order, saying that "Trump has abused freedom...

This week, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan overseeing United States v. Donald Trump issued a gag order prohibiting a leading presidential candidate, Donald Trump, from engaging in speech aimed at “government staff,” among others, during his trial. Listen, I understand the disdain some conservatives feel for the former president. I share the sentiment. But if you’re cheering on a judge who’s inhibiting political speech on rickety grounds, you’re no friend of the “democracy” or the Constitution. “Mr. Trump may still vigorously seek public support as a presidential candidate, debate policies and people related to that candidacy, criticize the current...

President Trump’s lawyers on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal of Judge Tanya Chutkan’s unconstitutional gag order, Reuters reported.

At issue in the hearing on Monday is whether Judge Tanya S. Chutkan should impose a gag order on former President Donald J. Trump in the federal election subversion case. Gag orders can forbid people to publicly discuss a case or aspects of it. In this dispute, Jack Smith, the special counsel, has asked Judge Chutkan to bar Mr. Trump from publicly making “disparaging and inflammatory or intimidating” public statements about witnesses, the District of Columbia jury pool, or the judge and prosecutors themselves. Doing so would raise tricky First Amendment issues as Mr. Trump makes another bid for the...