The court considers the continuation of the lawsuit against former President Trump about the elections

2024-09-05 15:15:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The court considers the continuation of the lawsuit against former President

The court will hear arguments Thursday about the next steps in the federal lawsuit against former President Donald Trump for trying to overturn the election results. This will be the first hearing in court, after the Supreme Court's decision that former presidents enjoy broad immunity from criminal charges.

Judge Tanya Chutkan is overseeing the lawsuit, which is based on allegations that former President Trump conspired to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election before the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Former President Trump is not expected to attend, and it was unclear whether Judge Chutkan would make a decision Thursday.

Special counsel Jack Smith's team filed a new indictment last week that dropped some of the charges previously filed against former President Trump, enforcing the Supreme Court's immunity ruling. The team of prosecutors has also said that they are ready to present a document with their legal views on how the Supreme Court decision can be applied to the case in question.

Defense attorneys have said they will file several motions to dismiss the case, including one that relies on a Florida judge's ruling that Smith's appointment was unconstitutional.

Neither side expects to go to trial before the November election, particularly because of the volume of legal work that needs to be done. Judge Chutkan must now decide which articles of the charges can continue to be part of the lawsuit, following the Supreme Court's ruling on immunity.

The Supreme Court ruled in July that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for exercising their basic constitutional functions and are considered immune from investigations into official actions.

Smith's prosecution team responded by revising the lawsuit, which removed references to former President Trump's efforts to use the Justice Department's law enforcement powers to stay in power — an aspect the Supreme Court said ex- President Trump enjoys immunity.

This lawsuit is based on one of two federal lawsuits filed against former President Trump. The second lawsuit accused the former president of obtaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, estate. That lawsuit was dismissed in July by Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled that the appointment of special prosecutor Smith was illegal.

Prosecutor Smith's team has appealed this decision. Former President Trump's lawyers say they will ask the judge to dismiss the lawsuit related to the election result, based on the same reasoning./ Voa