Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts as he arrives to speak at a rally at 1st Summit Arena at the Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on August 30, 2024. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)
Washington: The prosecutor pursuing US election interference charges against Donald Trump and the former president's lawyers have clashed over next steps in the case, according to jointly filed briefs.
The Trump side, in a filing late Friday to federal judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, proposed a calendar that would push any pretrial arguments not just past the November election but until after the next president takes office, in January 2025.
Trump's lawyers expressed confidence that they would, in any case, be able to get the charges against the Republican nominee thrown out before the matter comes to trial.
On the prosecution side, Special Counsel Jack Smith did not propose a specific timetable but said he would be ready to offer written arguments on the question of presidential immunity whenever the court requested them -- and asked that that issue be given priority.
Chutkan had asked each side to propose a plan to resolve outstanding issues after the conservative-dominated Supreme Court ruled that presidents have a presumption of immunity from prosecution for official acts.
Earlier in the week, Smith had revised his initial indictment in a carefully tailored effort to bring the charges in line with that Supreme Court ruling.
Some elements of the original indictment were dropped, though the core charges remained, stating that Trump lost the election to Joe Biden in 2020 but "was determined to remain in power" and attempted to subvert the results.
The Supreme Court, in its July 1 ruling, left it to Chutkan to determine what specific presidential actions might not enjoy immunity.
