The Daily Fuckup

A federal judge in Washington on Feb. 2, 2024, vacated Donald Trump’s March 4 trial date in the federal election-subversion case while the immunity fight in the appeals courts was still unresolved. In a minute order, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan also vacated the Feb. 9 administration of a written questionnaire for prospective jurors and said the court would set a new schedule if and when the mandate returned.

The practical effect was to move the case off the immediate calendar. The case, brought by special counsel Jack Smith, accuses Trump of trying to overturn the 2020 election results and block the transfer of power after he lost. The order did not resolve those allegations. It simply removed the March trial date while the appeals process continued.

Trump has argued that the criminal cases against him make it harder to campaign and has portrayed the prosecution as politically driven. Critics, meanwhile, have pointed to the schedule as evidence that the case remained a live issue during the 2024 race. But the order itself did not decide any of those political arguments. It only reset the court’s timetable.

The new delay mattered because it pushed the first trial date farther from the early stages of the primary calendar. It also left open the possibility that the case could move again depending on what happened in the immunity appeal. For now, the central fact was straightforward: the March 4 trial date was off the board on Feb. 2.