Washington, D.C. District Court Justice Tanya Chutkan was re-handed Donald Trump's 2020 election fraud case Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on his "presidential immunity" claims.
The High Court sent the case back to Chutkan after it decided that official acts of a president were immune from criminal prosecution — but it was up to her to decide which, if any, of Trump's actions in the election interference case were official.
Several legal analysts speculated about what the next steps would be in the months left before the 2024 election.
Former impeachment lawyer Norm Eisen said this week that "Chutkan should quickly schedule a mini-trial to apply SCOTUS’ test."
The "mini-trial" would be to decide what is and is not an "official" act, he said. Doing such a trial would be the only way to have an official review of the evidence that the Justice Department has gathered in its ongoing investigation.
"Now that the case is back in her court, Judge Chutkan can begin issuing orders and set a briefing schedule," wrote Lawfare's Anna Bower.
"D.C. courts are now going to very publicly have to decide what Trump is immune from and what he is not," remarked E.J. Kalafarski, New Jersey director of the Office of Innovation.
"Here we go," said Georgia law professor Anthony Michael Kreis on X. "Mini trial time?"
"Pieces falling into place? T[rump] loses; Chutkan excludes some official acts from DC prosecution; enough unofficial acts left to establish 371, 1512(k) & 241; interlocutory appeal; DCCA denies; SCOTUS denies cert.; T[rump] tried, convicted & sentenced to federal penitentiary?" was the response from teh X account LegalNerd, which claims to be run by a longtime federal and state lawyer.
Political analyst Rachel Bitecofer noted that the D.C. circuit court had a "unanimous decision that there's no such thing as presidential immunity for criminal actions overturned by a bunch of activist judges trying to pad the landing for a Trump autocracy. I bet they moved fast."
"Let’s see a scheduling order from her ASAP!" cheered MSNBC host and legal analyst Katie Phang.
