Judge may have 'surprises' up her sleeve in Trump's Jan. 6 case: expert

A federal judge rejected Donald Trump's attempt to make his charges go away in the Jan. 6 case, and a legal expert predicted a few surprises she could have up her sleeve.

District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued her first substantive order Saturday after the federal criminal case was returned to her following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Trump's immunity claims. MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin identified some potential surprises to watch for going forward.

"I think one of the surprises could be just how much of the case Judge Chutkan is willing to take out based on the immunity ruling," Rubin said. "She is certainly willing to go ahead, has been itching to forge ahead. Certainly it looks as if she had at least one of these opinions sort of in the hopper waiting for the case to be returned to her, but I think the biggest surprise could be how much of the case she's willing to let go forward."

"There is a general presumption that she believes, certainly based on her immunity decision, that the president should have been amenable to all of these charges," Rubin added. "So what she allows to go forward, if she slims this down, if she slims this down considerably, I think that might come as a surprise to some folks."

The case has been on hold since December as the former president's appeal has played out, eventually resulting in the high court granting him broad immunity for official actions carried out while president.

Chutkan must now determine which of the charges will remain by ruling on whether his actions described in the indictment were part of his official duties.

"Does he have to show up at the status conference?" Rubin said. "The answer is no, the judge said in her order over the weekend that his appearance is waived. He doesn't have to come.

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"In terms of what's next, we have one deadline this week and then obviously that status conference next week. The deadline this week is for what's called the joint status report from the parties where they are going to tell her what they each think is the best way forward. Remember, according to the Supreme Court, Judge Chutkan now has to decide essentially which allegations can be in the case and which have to come out pursuant to their decision on presidential immunity.

'Each side is going to have their own ideas as to how she can best get to that decision and what she needs to hear from them. We will likely hear from the government that they think evidence needs to be put forward and that they need a hearing. We also expect to hear from the Trump team."

"They don't think any evidence sharing needs to happen at all, that this can just happen on the papers," Rubin added. "We will see that report on [Aug. 9]. On the 16th at 10:00 a.m. Judge Chutkan is back in control and the lawyers will appear before her then."

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