Judge Has Trump Election Case Back From Supreme Court

The federal election interference case against Donald Trump is back with the trial judge after sitting at the Supreme Court for months. The three-judge appeals court panel returned the prosecution on Friday to US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, CBS News reports, who can now set a schedule and announce next steps in the trial. She has a number of decisions to make in light of the Supreme Court's ruling that former presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts taken in office. The appeals judges had earlier found Trump does not have such protections and can be prosecuted.

The decisions include whether Trump's efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 election he lost to President Biden were official acts. Some evidence against Trump might be unusable now, as could testimony from White House aides and former Vice President Mike Pence, per CNN. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts told Chutkan to "carefully analyze" the indictment's allegations—without providing much guidance—and said any protections "may depend on the content of context." There's almost no way the trial could take place before this year's election, but the Hill points out that Chutkan could hold an evidentiary hearing before November that could play out as a mini-trial. (More election interference indictment stories.)