Former President Donald Trump will not have to respond to special counsel Jack Smith’s massive recent filing in the ongoing election interference case against him until after the election, a judge ruled on Thursday.
Smith's Wednesday filing exposed a multitude of accusations against the former president and alleged extensive attempts to interfere with the transfer of power from the Trump administration to that of President Joe Biden. D.C. judge Tanya Chutkan granted the ex-president’s motion to delay a response to that filing in part, denying an ask for a late-November response date but pushing the required response date until November 7.
The case was already delayed by months earlier this year when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the issue of presidential immunity in the case, ultimately handing down a sweeping ruling that sent Smith back to the drawing board.
Smith’s office filed a superseding indictment in August with the revised charges, framing Trump’s plot to steal the 2020 election as the actions of a private citizen, not those taken in his capacity as president.
A trial was already out of the question before the election, but the scheduling decision makes it all but certain that Smith’s will be the final word in the case before voters cast their ballots.
Trump, whose legal issues have defined much of his 2024 campaign for president, has evaded accountability in the short term, with many of the highest-profile cases being tossed or facing substantial delays. Smith’s office has been a target of Trump, who has hinted that he would compel the Justice Department to end probes into him in a second term.
