U.S. district judge Tanya Chutkan has postponed former president Donald Trump’s trial date for his election-subversion case in Washington, D.C., as a result of his pending appeal which intends to challenge the Department of Justice’s right to charge him over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Chutkan’s ruling comes as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has not yet decided on whether Trump is immune from prosecution in the case. Trump argues he has presidential immunity because the alleged crimes that he’s accused of took place before he left the White House.
The trial was originally set to start March 4, the day before Super Tuesday. The primary election day is when voters in 15 states and one U.S. territory will cast their ballots. No new date for the trial has been scheduled, according to a new court order.
“The court will set a new schedule if and when the mandate is returned,” Chutkan wrote in the order on Friday.
The delay is a win for Trump, as he continues fighting numerous legal battles while running for the 2024 presidency. In the D.C. election-subversion case brought forward by special counsel Jack Smith, the former president is charged with four federal counts, which includes conspiring to defraud the U.S. and to obstruct an official proceeding. Trump has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Prior to the postponement, this case against Trump was supposed to begin first among the three other criminal indictments that he faces.
The New York indictment, in which Trump is accused of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, is expected to start in late March.
In the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, U.S. district judge Aileen Cannon said she’d revisit the trial date at a hearing on March 1.
Trump is also set to go to trial in Georgia for a separate 2020 election case later this year, although a date has not been finalized yet. Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis had proposed August 5 as a tentative option.