Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is the one presiding over former United States President Donald Trump's Washington, DC, criminal case, acknowledged on Monday that the defendant's trial could be delayed deep into 2024.
She told attorneys in another criminal case that she is planning to be out of the country in early August unless Trump's case is already underway. The judge made the announcement in front of a sparsely attended conference for the other criminal case.
The case is one of more than 1,200 that stem from the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. The judge said that if she is stateside, it would be because "I'm in trial in another matter that has not yet returned to my calendar."
The judge's remark was a clear reference to the former president's case, which has been put on hold since December last year. This was as a federal appeals court considers whether or not Trump should be considered "immune" from charges related to his conduct as president of the United States, as per Politico.
The announcement marked Chutkan's first public acknowledgment that the former president's trial, which is on charges related to his effort to subvert the 2020 election, could extend past the GOP nominating contest as well as the Republican National Convention (RNC).
The latter is scheduled to be held from Jul. 15 to Jul. 18. However, for the second time in a week, the Obama-appointed judge emphasized that the schedule of the trial is largely out of her control.
The judge on Friday called off the Republican businessman's original Mar. 4 trial date and indicated that she would reset it "if and when" higher courts resolve the immunity issue and allow her to proceed with a trial.
The development has prompted concerns among legal observers as they are worried that the former president's criminal case could be delayed past November this year. This would bolster his efforts to return to the Oval Office, according to The Hill.
Former President's Delay Tactics
Trump's delay tactics are a well-worn strategy by the Republican businessman and his legal teams to bend circumstances in his favor. US Solicitor General Neal Katyal said that he is officially now at the "freakout stage."
The stalling tactics have thrown anti-Trump legal pundits into a full spiral, warning that it could only help the GOP frontrunner. The counsel for the Democrats in Trump's first impeachment, Norm Eisen, called the lack of a ruling a "temporary win" for the Republican businessman.
If Trump manages to win the presidency in the general election, he could order his attorney general to simply dismiss the criminal charges against him. And in the event that the indictment was left in place, the proceedings against him could be frozen as long as he is the sitting president.
Prosecutors have never explicitly said that they want to hold the trial before the general election in an effort to avoid such potential consequences. They instead opted to frame their efforts to move the case quickly toward trial as a nod toward the enormous public interest in seeing the case resolved quickly, said the New York Times.
