by Techno Fog at The Gateway Pundit
It’s safe to say that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s District of Columbia case against Donald Trump, which alleges “four felony indictments of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election”, will not go to trial on March 4, 2024.
The setting of Trump’s DC trial for the spring of 2024 – conveniently scheduled one day before the Super Tuesday primaries – was undoubtedly the result of a shared interest between the Special Counsel and the presiding judge, Tanya Chutkan: to convict Donald Trump before the 2024 election. Moreover, given the 11+ million pages of documents involved in this case, the hundreds (if not thousands) of hours of video and audio, and the hundreds of witnesses, the accelerated trial date was a violation of Trump’s Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel, which includes the opportunity to prepare for trial.
The effect of Trump’s notice of appeal was important – it deprived Judge Chutkan of jurisdiction over the case. As Trump’s attorneys argued in one of their latest filings:
“The filing of President Trump’s notice of appeal has deprived this Court of jurisdiction over this case in its entirety pending resolution of the appeal. Therefore, a stay of all further proceedings is mandatory and automatic.”
The stay of Trump’s criminal case should include all pretrial matters and jury selection – anything relating to matters that are subject to the appeal. While Special Counsel Smith conceded that the notice of appeal divested Judge Chutkan of “of control over those aspects of the case involved in the appeal”, he also argued that the court retained jurisdiction of other issues and deadlines unrelated to the appeal and maintained his desire to ensure the case goes to trial in March 2024:…
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