The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s criminal prosecution for interference in the 2020 election issued a series of deadlines on Thursday that will see prosecutors have the last word just days before the November election on whether the charges should be kept against the former president.
In a brief order, the US district judge Tanya Chutkan decided that prosecutors could file the first brief explaining how the charges against Trump in a slimmed-down indictment complied with the US supreme court’s ruling granting former presidents broad immunity from prosecution.
That means prosecutors – over the Trump team’s objections – will also have the final word on why they believe all of the conduct in the superseding indictment is not covered by immunity in a filing that is due on 29 October, just one week before the presidential election in November.
The order resolved a nagging issue for the Trump campaign ever since the supreme court returned the case to Chutkan in the weeks after it issued its ruling: how much of the damaging criminal case could be a factor in the final sprint to election day.
