Trump election interference case comes back to life after Supreme Court immunity decision

WASHINGTON - The federal criminal case over whether former President Donald Trump tried to steal the 2020 election will start moving forward later this month, though it still remains unlikely to go to trial before the 2024 election.

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on July 1 in a 6-3 decision that former presidents have immunity for official acts conducted while in office - but not for unofficial acts - the case was handed back to the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan resumed control of the case again Friday and issued her first order Saturday morning, which denied Trump's motion to dismiss the federal criminal charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith. But Chutkan also ruled the Republican's 2024 presidential nominee can refile his request later, once questions about his immunity have been resolved.

The Supreme Court tasked Chutkan with deciding which acts are official and which are not official and thus what charges can be brought before a jury. Her decisions are also expected to be appealed.

Kick starting the legal maneuvering, Chutkan set an Aug. 16 hearing in Washington, D.C., to consider the schedule for Trump’s felony criminal case. She also ordered both Trump's lawyers and Smith's Justice Department team to propose a schedule for moving forward by Friday.

Keeping up with Washington is hard. We figure it out for you. Sign up for USA TODAY's On Politics newsletter for daily analysis.

Trump is not required to attend the upcoming hearing, which will come just days before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago where his 2024 opponent, Kamala Harris, will formally accept her party's presidential nomination.

Smith last August charged Trump with four criminal counts for attempting to subvert the 2020 election by conspiring to obstruct Congress' meeting on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify Joe Biden's win; attempting to use the Justice Department to convince states to replace legitimate presidential electors with fraudulent slates; threatening to replace government leaders for not announcing an investigation into election security was underway, when no such probe existed; and attempting to enlist then-Vice President Mike Pence to accept the fake electoral slates.

The Supreme Court raised issued with whether the allegations involving the Justice Department and the vice president are official acts.

It appears unlikely a trial could occur before the election at this point. Chutkan has previously said she would give Trump's legal team several months to prepare once she had control of the case again, and her analysis of what charges can be brought in the case could take up to a year.

That analysis would likely include wide ranging hearings on the facts of the case, some of which could begin soon, that could still be politically damaging for Trump with less than 100 days before Election Day.

While Trump has scored some recent big legal wins, the former president is hardly out of criminal trouble. He's scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18 in New York after a jury convicted him of falsifying business records in order to hide reimbursements to his former lawyer, who made hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. The judge in the case postponed an earlier sentencing date while he considers Trump's request to toss out the entire case based on the Supreme Court's immunity ruling.

Trump also faces felony charges in two other criminal cases that have not yet been scheduled. One in Florida over Trump's refusal to return classified documents once he left office has been dismissed, but the special counsel has appealed the decision. The other, a wide-ranging election racketeering case in Fulton County, Georgia, charges Trump and several co-conspirators with attempting to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

The Republican's 2024 presidential nominee has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US judge sets August hearing in Trump felony election case