U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Donald Trump‘s federal election interference case in Washington, D.C., is set to hold hearings regarding his potential presidential immunity status relating to the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot in which legal analyst and attorney Glenn Kirschner said will reveal “evidence” about the former president’s “crimes.”
On July 1, in a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court found that former presidents have immunity for official acts conducted while in office, but not for unofficial acts. The decision affects a case against Trump that has been on hold for months pending this ruling. The case, led by Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith, accuses Trump of attempting to overturn President Joe Biden‘s 2020 election victory in events that led to the riot.
Trump claims that he is immune from prosecution because he was in office when the alleged scheme took place. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and claims the case is politically motivated.
On January 6, thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying 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 rioter being shot dead and dozens of police officers injured.
In a Friday episode of political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen’s The Legal Breakdown, Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and MSNBC legal analyst who is a frequent critic of Trump, spoke about the expected hearings that Chutkan will hold in response to the Court’s recent ruling.
He explained that the Supreme Court’s decision “said he [Trump] may enjoy presidential immunity for official presidential acts but, if what he did on and around January 6 constituted unofficial acts, private conduct for example—a candidate trying to retain power of the presidency after losing an election—he can be prosecuted.”
On Saturday morning, Chutkan denied the former president’s motion to dismiss all the charges in his case on the grounds of presidential immunity. Therefore, the hearings are expected to continue.
AP Photo/John Minchillo
“The good news, we’re gonna see the dang evidence,” Kirschner said about the hearings. “They are going to have to litigate the question of whether all this stuff Donald Trump did was official or unofficial, and the benefit of that is the American people are going to see and hear reported out of the trial proceedings exactly what Donald Trump did.”
Trump was indicted by a grand jury in August 2023 on four counts over allegedly working to overturn the election: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.
“I have a feeling we’re going to be learning some things,” Kirschner said. “This evidence was developed as part of a secret grand jury proceeding,” as is typical in all grand jury proceedings.
He told Cohen, “Buckle up because in the coming weeks and probably the next couple of months we are going to be learning a whole lot more crimes of Donald Trump and the many Republican witnesses who provided the incriminating evidence against Donald Trump.”
In the brief filed Saturday, Chutkan scheduled a hearing for August 16. It is unlikely that the official trial will take place before the presidential election on November 5, where Trump is the Republican presidential nominee likely to face Democratic frontrunner Vice President Kamala Harris.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s campaign manager and Kirschner for comment via email on Saturday.