The federal judge hearing the election-rigging case against former US President Donald Trump on Saturday rejected a defence bid to dismiss the indictment over claims he was prosecuted for retaliatory and political purposes.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is the first substantive order since the case was returned to her on Friday following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision last month that granted broad immunity to former presidents and limited special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump.
In their motion to dismiss the indictment, defense lawyers argued that Trump was treated unfairly because he was prosecuted while others who challenged the election results have escaped criminal charges. Trump, a Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential race, also suggested that President Joe Biden and the Justice Department prosecuted him to prevent him from winning re-election.
But Chutkan rejected both arguments, saying Trump was not charged simply with challenging the election results but with “knowingly making false statements in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy and obstruction of the election certification proceedings.” He also said his lawyers had misread news media articles they cited to argue the prosecution was political in nature.
“After reviewing defendant’s evidence and arguments, the court cannot conclude that it has met its burden to establish actual retaliation or the perception of it, and therefore finds no basis to dismiss this case on these grounds,” Chutkan wrote in his order.
Also on Saturday, they scheduled a status conference for Aug. 16 to discuss next steps in the case.
The four-count indictment, scheduled to be brought in August 2023, accuses Trump of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election through a variety of schemes, including harassing his Vice President Mike Pence to prevent the formal certification of electoral votes.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that as a former president he is immune from prosecution, and the case has been on hold since December as his appeals are pending in the courts.
The Supreme Court held by a 6-3 vote that presidents enjoy blanket immunity for core constitutional duties and are potentially immune from prosecution for all other official actions. The justices sent the case back to Chutkan to determine which actions alleged in the indictment could remain part of the prosecution and which should be dismissed.
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