Judge Chutkan Tells Team Trump Election Doesn’t Factor Into Court Schedule

Trump is having a bad day for sure. His spirits probably were lifted earlier when the judge in his DC case indicated a trial is a long, long ways off. As in long after the election, when hopes to be President again and can order his AG stooge to drop that particular prosecution. Ah, but the day continued and Trump is probably sedated by Ronny Jackson with the news that DC Circuit Court judge Tanya Chutkan intends to proceed with pre-trial work regardless of the election schedule. Get ready because I suspect RWNJ media and the entire GOP is going to go thermonuclear.

An article from Reuters has a headline which sums things up: Judge in Trump subversion case won’t be swayed by election schedule.  Uh Oh.  Trump wants the whole thing dismissed and his lawyers are hanging their hats on the SCOTUS immunity ruling. If Trump can’t have THAT, for the time being he’ll settle for the whole matter including any and all pre-trial stuff in court to be pushed into December. After the election. Trumpty-Dumpty sure as hell doesn’t want Special Counsel Jack Smith presenting even some of his evidence in any pre-trial hearing!

Team Trump must be feeling whiplash. Down in Florid-DUH their pet judge Aileen “Loose” Cannon did what they wanted and dismissed THAT case.  Now they’re all whiny and butt-hurt that in DC they have an actual experienced, competent and savvy judge who doesn’t play around with any of her cases. Including the one Trump’s caught up in. Nope, once a case is in her courtroom she moves it along and does so well enough to have developed an almost bullet proof reputation for being tough but fair. Prosecutors who aren’t prepared or try to sling b.s. in her court get cut off at the knees just like hack defense lawyers.

No doubt we’ll be hearing about that DOJ guideline about “going dark” 60 days out from an election. Two things. First it’s a DOJ guideline. Not a law. Second, once charges are filed the DOJ is no longer in control of the process. The court system, and that means the JUDGE calls the shots. Federal judges in particular don’t like other people telling them when they can go about their business. Also, bear in mind if Trump and his lawyers hadn’t done everything in their power to throw sand in the gears they wouldn’t now, with the election so near be facing the prospect of having some of that damning evidence becoming public in court!

Judge Chutkan has Trump’s (and his lawyer’s too) number and she’s not putting up with any games or typical Trump bullshit. In fact, according to the linked story she pretty much called out Trump’s lawyers from the bench accusing them of attempting to prevent potentially damaging information from coming out prior to Nov. 5:

“It strikes me that what you’re trying to do is affect presentation of evidence in this case so as not to impinge on an election,” U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan told Lauro, adding that she is “not concerned with the electoral schedule.”

That it seems is the situation in a nutshell. Judge Chutkan bluntly told Trump’s lawyers ‘I know what you’re trying to pull and that dog won’t hunt in MY courtroom’ AND ‘you’re in the court system now and your election/campaign issues aren’t the court’s concern.’  If there was such a thing as a time machine Moses would love to have Team Trump back in Egypt when the Pharaoh said no more straw for brick making. I’ll bet lots of bricks are being shat out by Trump and his lawyers (and other Republicans counting on him winning) this afternoon.

It’s not like Smith actually wants to put on a bunch of details of his case pre-trial. Sure, the defense gets discovery but Smith would rather save the case for the actual trial.  Still, while Lauro claims the new indictment is ‘same as the old one and that without the Pence stuff there’s no case’ reporting indicates Smith was careful about what was presented to the grand jury that approved the superseding indictment:

Smith has argued that all the remaining allegations are not covered by the immunity ruling and can proceed to trial.

Prosecutors have said that they are prepared to file court papers laying out their argument “at any time the court deems appropriate.”

Yep, I’d say there’s more than a little shouting and cussing going on in Trump World at the moment. Whether on Truth Social or twitter/X I’m sensing an epic storm of Trump posts is a coming!  The theme will be ‘This MEANIE judge is treating ME like any other defendant! WAAAHHHH!  NOT FAIR!  I’M SPECIAL!’  It will of course devolve from there. For the cherry on top there will also be some CT thrown in.  None of the talking heads seem to be discussing it but I saw news this morning that Special Counsel Jack Smith made a curious filing with the Court.  According to Newsweek Smith has filed a document under seal. Neither the public or Trump’s lawyers know what it contains but apparently classified information is involved. Hmmmm.

I haven’t been glued to the TV today but I’d have thought this would have been talked about. Let’s face it, a sealed Ex Parte filing is highly unusual. Even when we are talking about Trumpian stuff. Still, it’s there and only Smith (and his team) and the judge know what the hell is in there. What do we know? According to Newsweek:

A Wednesday court notice shows that Smith filed a document titled “Government’s Classified, Ex Parte, In Camera, and Under Seal Notice Regarding Classified Discovery,” a formal way of saying the Department of Justice (DOJ) has submitted a confidential document that contains classified information in the case.

   Apparently I’m in the minority in thinking this deserves a lot more attention than it’s gotten so far. FYI, if you’re not into legal stuff here’s Newsweek’s primer on terms you should know to see why this is a BFD:

• Classified: The document includes sensitive or secret information that is restricted from public access for security reasons.
• Ex Parte: This means the document was submitted by the government without notifying the defense. Only Chutkan is informed, and the defense does not get to see it.
• In Camera: Chutkan will review this document privately, without the presence of either party’s lawyers.
• Under Seal: The document is kept completely confidential—it cannot be accessed by the public or other parties involved in the case

I’m hesitant to go down the CT rabbit hole myself but I can’t help but wonder if there was something in that sealed filing that affected judge Chutkan’s approach today. On the other hand as I said she’s got a well-established history of not tolerating b.s. in her court and moving cases along. And it’s not like she and an increasing number of judges (except for Cannon) haven’t grown tired of Trump’s endless delaying tactics. It would take an entire article to dig into that sealed motion and whether it played a role in the judge’s admonishments to Team Trump so I’ll let it go. For now at least.

What I will say is that Trump and his lawyers were already freaking out before court got going today with ‘What did Smith tell the judge?  What has he got on me/us?” questions. Keep an eye on this. And settle in for what will be a memorable meltdown from Trump tonight.