Judge Tanya Chutkan delivers good news to Donald Trump on his first day back in court

Judge Tanya Chutkan said on Thursday that a possible start of the trial against Donald Trump for election fraud was still “months” away.

This should be music to Trump's ears, as the former president and his team have fought tooth and nail to have any of his indictments postponed until after the November 5 general election.

Election Day is exactly two months away, but Chutkan's recent comments suggest she does not believe Trump's trial will begin before then. She insisted that politics will not influence the trial, but acknowledged the national importance of the case.

“Let's discuss what the sensitive timing is,” she said. “I understand there's an election coming up. I've said before and I'll say it again that the election is not relevant here. This court doesn't deal with the election schedule.”

Chutkan said she would release a timetable for the case “as soon as possible,” adding that set trial dates could be announced as early as later today.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors and Trump's legal team were back in Chutkan's courtroom for the first time since last year. After disagreements with prosecutors and defense attorneys, Chutkan formally filed charges against Trump on Thursday that matched the counts in his original indictment.

Trump did not attend Thursday’s hearing, but Politico reported that his lawyers confirmed that he had read the indictment and wanted to plead not guilty for a second time.

John Lauro, a lawyer for Trump, asked Chutkan not to rush the proceedings. The judge responded that the myriad delays that have already marred the case were proof that she handles things in a timely manner.

“This case has been pending for over a year,” she said. “We are hardly sprinting toward the finish line here.”

At one point, things got a little heated between Lauro and Chutkan, as the judge was clearly fed up with listening to Trump's team talk ad nauseam about the national importance of the case.

When Lauro eventually stood up to speak, Chutkan shouted, “I don’t need any further elaboration on how serious or grave this is.”

Lauro replied: “This is not rhetoric. This is called legal argumentation.”