Judge Chutkan Ready to ‘Expose’ Donald Trump’s Conduct: State Attorney

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan may soon arrange a “mini-trial” to present evidence in former President Donald Trump’s federal election subversion case that will “expose his conduct,” legal analyst and attorney Dave Aronberg said on Saturday.

Aronberg told the hosts of MSNBC’s The Weekend on Saturday morning that Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s federal election subversion case, “is going to hold a mini-trial and is going to able to just present evidence and to show the world Donald Trump’s activities before, during and after January 6th.”

In an email to Newsweek on Saturday afternoon, Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, defined a “mini-trial” as “the factfinding hearings that the Supreme Court ordered Judge Chutkan to undertake to determine whether Trump acted in his official or unofficial capacity in his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.”

He also noted that the hearings would be public and could “potentially reveal new evidence that had previously been undisclosed.”

Newsweek has filed a media inquiry form on the U.S. District Court District of Columbia’s website on Saturday afternoon.

On January 6, 2021, thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden‘s 2020 election victory. The riot erupted following claims from Trump that the election had been stolen from him via widespread voter fraud, despite there being no evidence to back up his claims. The insurrection resulted in one protester being shot dead and dozens of police officers injured.

In August 2023, Trump was indicted on four counts of allegedly working to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith is leading the prosecution accusing Trump of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has pleaded not guilty to all counts and has said the case is politically motivated. The case was frozen for nearly six months while the U.S. Supreme Court considered Trump’s presidential immunity case.

On July 1, the Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that presidents have three categories for immunity: absolute immunity for core presidential functions; official presidential acts that carry presumptive immunity, and no immunity for unofficial acts of a president.

When the case returns to Chutkan’s court, she will begin deciding which parts of the indictment belong in which of the three categories.

Aronberg told Newsweek that these public hearings “would require Judge Chutkan to determine whether Jack Smith could overcome the presumption of immunity that Trump now enjoys for actions the Supreme Court designated as official, but not within a President’s core Constitutional powers.”

On Saturday morning, the attorney told The Weekend co-hosts that he isn’t sure of the exact date of Chutkan’s reported “mini-trial,” but noted that “she said she would be willing to cancel her European vacation to get this thing going, so I think it will happen before the election.”

Aronberg added that the “mini trial will expose his [Trump] conduct, even though there will not be a trial before the election.”

Trump’s case faces a tight timeline with the upcoming November election. If he wins, the DOJ’s policy prohibits pursuing criminal cases against sitting presidents. This means prosecutors would need to wait until Trump leaves office to continue with the case.

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s spokesperson for comment via email on Saturday afternoon.

Next week, Trump is expected to formally accept the GOP’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention. As of now, he is slated to face off against President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

Trump faces three other criminal cases during his latest presidential campaign. He has pleaded not guilty in all cases, and in late May a jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal 2016 hush money payments that were made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied. The former president’s legal team has vowed to appeal the case.

On July 10, Trump’s lawyers argued in a court filing that the conviction against the former president should be thrown out based on the Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.

“Rather than wait for the Supreme Court’s guidance, the prosecutors scoffed with hubris at President Trump’s immunity motions and insisted on rushing to trial,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in the court filing, who urged the presiding Judge Juan Merchan to take into account the immunity ruling.

Trump’s sentencing date was delayed two months, until September 18, as Merchan considers whether the Court’s immunity ruling affects the hush money case.