A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has granted a request from former President Donald Trump’s lawyers for additional time to file motions in the federal election obstruction case before his March 2024 trial.
The order was made by U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan and is a small victory for Trump’s lawyers. In court papers, they asked for more time to prepare their arguments for the case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
The judge gave President Trump a little more time to file motions, but she mostly turned down his lawyer’s requests to push back the trial dates. In her order, she turned down the former president’s request for some of the government’s court filings about classified evidence to be made public, The Epoch Times reported.
“Lengthy deadline extensions for the defense’s anticipated dispositive motions—like motions to dismiss—are not warranted,” her order said. “If the court were to extend the briefing schedule for these motions by the requested sixty days, they would not be fully briefed until January 2024.”
Judge Chutkan only gave the former president two weeks extra time to file pre-trial court motions, even though he had asked for sixty days. By Oct. 23, many different kinds of motions must be made in order for the case to be thrown out. The judge also agreed to the Trump lawyers’ request to file objections about the case’s secret evidence.
It happened a few days after Trump’s lawyers said in court papers that they needed more time to think about how to look at classified evidence in the case. They also said that they are “seeking a fair opportunity for reasonable adversary proceedings” regarding the materials. They said lawyers could only look at the secret evidence that Smith’s office gave them for the first time, and it was too short.
“Our review was brief and preliminary,” the motion stated. “But it it is clear that President Trump is entitled to additional materials possessed by the U.S. intelligence community” and other portions of the executive branch.
The report also said that some members of Trump’s legal team don’t have the right security clearances to look at the evidence.
“Third, as noted above, in light of restrictions on one of the central documents in the classified discovery, we are presently foreclosed from making applications to the Special Counsel’s Office or the Court relating to the substance of the document,” his lawyers wrote. “Thus, although we anticipate transmitting discovery requests and motions to compel, we are not in a position to pursue those mechanisms as of this filing.”
When the former president asked for the motion to be set aside, federal prosecutors said it was an attempt to “delay the proceedings” and that there were not many classified documents in the case. Prosecutors said that his team also “failed to provide a basis for any extension” when it came to pre-trial motions in the case.
In the case where it is said that he tried to stop the 2020 presidential election, President Trump is charged with four federal felonies. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and said they are part of a long-term plot by Democrats and federal workers to hurt his chances of becoming president in 2024.
Last week, President Trump’s team filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying that the president had “immunity.” Judge Chutkan hasn’t decided on the motion to dismiss yet, and the lawyers for the special counsel haven’t replied either.
President Trump asked Judge Chutkan to step down from the case last month because of public comments she made while sentencing people for crimes related to the breach at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Judge Chutkan refused.
His lawyers said she said things that made it sound like he should be jailed or charged, which, they said, would mean she has a bias against the former president and shouldn’t be in charge of the case.
The next court date for the election case is Oct. 16. President Trump is also being tried in Georgia, New York City, and Florida.
He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him.
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