U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the election interference case against former President Donald Trump, has scheduled a conference with the defense and prosecution teams for August to determine pretrial proceedings. In a filing made on Saturday, Judge Chutkan announced that the conference would take place on August 16th.

In the same filing, Chutkan denied Trump's motion to dismiss the indictment. However, she clarified that Trump could file a renewed motion once all issues of immunity had been resolved. This decision comes a month after the Supreme Court ruled that Trump has some level of immunity for conduct related to the case, but it also instructed lower courts to determine which specific actions Trump could be prosecuted for.

The Supreme Court's ruling also stipulated that any of Trump's official conduct, deemed immune, cannot be admitted as evidence during a trial. The proceedings before Judge Chutkan had been put on hold while the case awaited the Supreme Court's decision. Now that the case is back with Chutkan, she will be responsible for determining which parts of Trump's conduct, as outlined in the indictment, are official and therefore immune from prosecution.

Both the defense and prosecution teams face an August 9th deadline to jointly file a status report with Judge Chutkan. The report needs to propose a schedule for pretrial proceedings, and the expectation is that the parties will collaborate to find common ground, as is customary in federal cases. The timeline for when the case may progress to trial remains uncertain.

It should be noted that Trump is not required to attend the conference on August 16th. Throughout the proceedings, Trump and his lawyers have consistently argued that he has prosecutorial immunity for the actions he took leading up to, and including, the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Supreme Court's ruling has been praised by Trump and his allies, while Democrats have criticized it. As of now, Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.