U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has rejected former President Donald Trump's motion to dismiss the case, the BBC reports. 

This means that Trump will be forced to continue to defend himself against the criminal charges that have been brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith.

This is all taking place in Washington, D.C., where Smith has accused Trump of having criminally interfered in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump has maintained his innocence, and he has insisted that Smith is merely running his own election interference on behalf of the Democrats.

Here's what is going on:

This case had been put on hold for over a half a year. It just picked back up recently.

The case was put on hold while Trump took to the U.S. Supreme Court the question of whether the prosecution of him was barred by the doctrine of presidential immunity.

The members of the court, just recently, ruled that U.S. presidents are protected from prosecution for official acts undertaken while as president. The justices, however, did not weigh in on which acts are considered official and which acts are considered non-official.

This is a question that the lower courts - the courts that are overseeing the various prosecutions of Trump - now have to work out.

Trump, of course, will argue that the acts for which he is being prosecuted are official acts and thus protected by presidential immunity, while the prosecutors will argue that they are not official acts and thus not protected. Ultimately, it will be up to the presiding judges to determine which side is right.

The latest

The so-called election interference case just returned to Chutkan's courtroom last week, and, on Saturday, she made her first ruling. As part of this ruling, she rejected Trump's motion to dismiss the case.

The BBC reports:

In a motion to dismiss it, Trump's lawyers argued he had been singled out for prosecution while other people who questioned the election results had not been. His lawyers also suggested Trump's political opponents had launched the prosecution to prevent him from winning re-election. Both arguments were rejected . . .

In addition to this, Chutkan also set a date for the next hearing in the case, which will take place on Aug. 16, 2024.

USA Today reports:

Kick starting the legal maneuvering, Chutkan set an Aug. 16 hearing in Washington, D.C., to consider the schedule for Trump’s felony criminal case. She also ordered both Trump's lawyers and Smith's Justice Department team to propose a schedule for moving forward by Friday.

After the hearing, we will get a better idea about how this case will proceed from here.