Judge grants delay requested by Donald Trump
The judge has postponed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump until September, all but ensuring that it will not go to trial before the presidential election.
Representative Barbara Lee led a civil lawsuit along with several fellow House Democrats, claiming that their duties were hindered by the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The case was brought under an 1871 act intended to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from intimidating members of Congress and obstructing their duties. On Monday, D.C. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that “immunity-related discovery” would continue until September 11, 2024.
Once discovery concludes in September, both sides will present arguments regarding whether or not Trump has presidential immunity from the civil lawsuit. This should not be confused with the presidential immunity from criminal lawsuits that the Supreme Court will consider. The civil lawsuit could potentially last for several months.
If Trump is granted immunity, the case will be dismissed. If not, further discovery will be expected, and a trial is unlikely to take place until after the inauguration in January 2025.
Trump, who has consistently sought delays in his trials, can then apply in federal court to postpone the case until after he leaves office.
On December 4, 2023, Lee released a statement stating that “justice is owed to the Congressional staff, Capitol support staff, law enforcement, and members of Congress who feared for their lives on January 6, 2021. I look forward to seeing Mr. Trump in court.”
MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday that the Washington D.C. Circuit, a higher court, had returned the case to Mehta after confirming that “former presidents are entitled to civil immunity for acts even on the ‘outer perimeter’ of their official duties.
“But they [the D.C. Circuit] held Trump had not yet shown his entitlement to such immunity and would instead have a chance to prove in the lower court that ‘his alleged actions in the run-up to and on January 6 were taken in his official capacity as President.'”
“This opinion was issued on December 1, 2023. And now, in late April, Judge Amit Mehta, the district court judge assigned to the case, has allowed the parties to engage in ‘immunity-related discovery’ until September 11, 2024,” Rubin wrote.
She stated that this does not bode well for the criminal case against Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., where he is accused of attempting to undermine Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election, has been indicted on four counts for allegedly working to overturn the results of the 2020 election leading up to the riot on January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. He has denied the charges.
This is one of four criminal cases that Trump is facing. He has pleaded not guilty in the other cases as well, denying any wrongdoing, and has repeatedly claimed that they are part of a political witch hunt.
The election fraud proceedings, which are before D.C. district judge Tanya Chutkan, have been put on hold while the Supreme Court considers the issue of presidential immunity.
“Now consider the criminal case before Judge Chutkan: In a scenario where the Supreme Court also determines that further proceedings are necessary to determine whether Trump can assert an immunity defense, will that case be able to go to trial before 2025? I increasingly doubt it—and that might be the only victory Trump wants or needs.”