Judge pauses court deadlines in Trump's 2020 election interference case

A U.S. judge has set aside all the pending court deadlines President-elect Donald Trump is facing for his 2020 election interference case.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan approved the request for the move Friday by Special Counsel Jack Smith, the prosecutor in the criminal case against the president-elect.

Smith's team said in its request for the delay that it needs "time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy."

Sitting presidents, according to Justice Department policy, cannot be prosecuted.

Now it seems that as Trump is on the verge of assuming the country's highest office again, following his victory this week over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election, the presidential office could shield Trump from facing charges stemming from what has become known as the Capitol riot.

Chutkan has instructed the prosecutors to file their court papers with their proposed way forward in the case against Trump by December 2.

Trump has always maintained that he has immunity from prosecution. In July, the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents do have broad immunity from prosecution and kicked the case back to Chutkan for her to determine how the case against the former president could proceed.

Trump's lawyers were scheduled to respond by November 21 to Smith's argument that the case could still proceed because most of the activities Trump was accused of came in his role as a candidate for re-election, not as president.

On January 6, 2021, Trump and his supporters sought to prevent Joe Biden from assuming the presidency. Biden had defeated then-President Trump in the 2020 election, but on that day, after Trump delivered a fiery speech, his supporters surged the Capitol as lawmakers were set to certify the presidential election results. More than 1,000 of Trump's supporters have been convicted for their participation in the riot.

Despite the violent images that have emerged from that day, including insurrectionists beating police officers, Trump has continued to characterize his supporters as "patriots" and has said he would pardon many of them if elected.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.