Former President Donald Trump and his legal team can celebrate this small victory, as their request for additional time to file motions in the DC election case have been granted. Shockingly, the federal judge who granted this motion was Tanya Chutkan.
Despite this however, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan only granted two weeks extra time for Trump to make pre-trial court motions, instead of the sixty days his lawyers had requested. In her order, she also denied the former president’s plea for some of the government’s secret evidence to be made public.
When requesting an extension from Judge Chutkan, Trump’s lawyers said they needed more time to consider how to review classified evidence presented by Special Counsel Jack Smith and that they were “seeking a fair opportunity for reasonable adversary proceedings” regarding these materials. The motion was denied when prosecutors argued that it was just an attempt “to delay the proceedings.”
The judge also agreed to allow defense attorneys access to certain confidential documents and information related to the case, but still refused their request for a longer deadline extension on pre-trial motions.
President Donald Trump is currently facing four federal felonies in connection with charges against him for trying to obstruct the 2020 presidential election results. He has pleaded not guilty and claims that this is part of a long-term plot by Democrats and other federal workers intended to prevent him from running again in 2024.
He asked Judge Chutkan last month to step down from overseeing his case due to comments she made while sentencing people involved in storming Capitol Hill on January 6th, 2021 which he interpreted as being biased against him but she refused his request.
A hearing will take place on October 16th regarding this case as well as several others occurring across Georgia, New York City and Florida where he has also pleaded not guilty.
