On Tuesday morning, Donald Trump’s legal team made what most would consider a very normal, reasonable request. Yet, it was quickly denied in a move that previews really rough seas ahead for the former president.
(Related: The Judge Assigned to Trump’s Election-Related Indictment Is Going to Be a Nightmare)
The controversy surrounds a hearing on a recent DOJ-requested protective order against Trump relating to a post he made on Truth Social attacking Mike Pence. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the D.C.-based election-related case, quickly set a hearing date of August 11th.
The problem? It wasn’t immediately clear that either of Trump’s primary lawyers could make that date. That led to a request that included coordination with the DOJ to offer August 9th and 10th as possible dates as well. In other words, both the defendant and prosecution were willing to work around each other to ensure everyone could make the hearing.
Further, Trump’s team stated that while they’d prefer to have both lawyers present, thereby suggesting August 14th or 15th, one of Trump’s lawyers would be available on August 10th. That is one of the dates the DOJ agreed would work for them.
Trump DC case –
The Court ordered dates for the protective order hearing, to be held by Aug 11
Trump: Both my lawyers need to be present. We prefer Aug. 14 or 15.
Strategy behind this – to test whether Judge Chutkan rejects this reasonable request. pic.twitter.com/XfFjcnA0GT
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) August 8, 2023
To reiterate, you have both sides agreeing to a possible date (the 10th) while one side says another date won’t work at all (the 11th), and what does Judge Chutkan do? She issues an order for the hearing to remain on August 11th.
No surprise – Judge Chutkan denies the hearing date(s) requested by Trump’s lawyers.
Unclear whether both of Trump’s lawyers can make it.
August 11 hearing date on the protective order. (Take a guess on whose protective order she’ll favor…) https://t.co/i0eq30GSmb pic.twitter.com/y3B8sfAW8M
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) August 8, 2023
I don’t know Judge Chutkan’s motives. What I do know is that she’s been one of the most vindictive judges to handle 2020 election-related cases, specifically those dealing with January 6th defendants. It seems more than reasonable to presume she has an ax to grind surrounding that entire period, and this ruling only provides further evidence of that.
Even if Judge Chutkan didn’t want to delay the hearing to the next week, you had both Trump’s team and the DOJ agreeing that they could make August 10th. To then double down on scheduling it on the 11th, when it’s possible that none of Trump’s primary counsel could attend, looks like pure spite. Moving dates around to accommodate the ability of lawyers to attend hearings is standard fare. There would be no reason to deny such a request when both sides had already agreed to compromise.
The other thing this points to is Chutkan’s desire to speed the entire process up in ways that aren’t reasonable or fair. It doesn’t look like she even entertained delaying the hearing by four days as Trump’s lawyers requested. That says that the rumors of her wanting to get this done well before the general election are probably true. That’s not good news for the former president, whose primary strategy, given the bias of Chutkan and the venue she lords over, has obviously been to delay things until Trump could possibly pardon himself.
Now that Chutkan has shown her hand, we’ll see how Trump’s lawyers respond. Obviously, there’s not much they can do overall because she controls nearly everything, but they can tweak their strategy based on how she’s operating. Regardless, Trump could be looking at a conviction by a D.C. jury well before the general election takes place if things continue this way.
