Federal Judge Skeptical Of Trump's Argument That Jan. 6 Case Should Be Postponed

WASHINGTON ― The federal judge handling Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 criminal case Thursday sounded deeply skeptical of his lawyer’s request to postpone proceedings so no new evidence against Trump can come out before the November election.

“This court is not concerned with the electoral schedule,” U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan told attorney John Lauro. “That’s nothing I’m going to consider.”

The coup-attempting former president has taken the same strategy from the outset for all his criminal cases: to delay them as long as possible. Should Trump win back the White House, he would be able to order his attorney general to dismiss the federal cases against him, and would likely succeed in getting the state prosecutions against him postponed until he is no longer in office.

Lauro continued those efforts in the Washington, D.C., courtroom Thursday morning, arguing that proceedings right now are especially harmful to Trump. “This process is particularly unfair in the sensitive time that we’re in,” he said.

In a series of combative exchanges, Chutkan questioned Lauro about that tactic. She said the “subtext” of his arguments is to make sure that the proceedings do not “impinge on an election.”

At one point, she chided Lauro for going off on extended soliloquies about how critical the case is for the future of the presidency and the American republic. “I don’t need any more rhetoric on how grave and serious this is,” she said.

“It isn’t rhetoric,” he answered. “It’s legal argument.”

Core to Trump’s claim is the idea that he is immune from prosecution for his actions leading up to and on Jan. 6, 2021 ― when a mob of his followers assaulted the U.S. Capitol ― because of a Supreme Court ruling earlier this summer.

The high court