Trump election interference case resumes in D.C. after year-long delay over immunity fight

• The federal criminal election interference case against Donald Trump resumed in Washington, D.C., after a year-long delay related to arguments on whether he can be prosecuted for conduct committed while he was president.
• Judge Tanya Chutkan heard arguments over how to schedule legal briefs to be filed in advance of a possible trial in the case.
• The trial is not going to happen before the election between Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.

The federal criminal election interference case against Donald Trump resumed in Washington, D.C., on Thursday after a nearly year-long delay related to arguments on whether he can be prosecuted for conduct committed while he was president.

Judge Tanya Chutkan heard arguments Thursday morning over how to schedule legal briefs to be filed in advance of a possible trial in the case.

"Probably an exercise in futility to set a trial date now," Chutkan said in U.S. District Court at the end of the hearing.

She said she would issue an order setting a schedule for motions as soon as possible.

Trump's trial in the case is likely to happen by 2025 at the earliest — if at all — because Chutkan's rulings on whether the case can go to trial are virtually certain to be appealed by one side or the other.

"A guiding principle here is we should structure a schedule here that leads to only one interlocutory appeal," said Thomas Windom, a prosecutor in the case, told Chutkan, using a term for appeals that occur before or during a trial, as opposed to afterward.

"We know that there is going to be an interlocutory appeal. We are just trying to limit to one," said Window.

The hearing comes two months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that