A US judge on Wednesday paused the federal case accusing Donald Trump of attempting to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The decision came to allow the former US president to mount an appeal claiming he is immune from the charges.
District Judge Tanya Chutkan said Trump's ongoing appeal would temporarily halt all activity that would move the case toward trial.
However, she added she could still enforce her past rulings, including the gag order that limits Trump's statements about prosecutors and witnesses, while the case is paused.
Trump is appealing Chutkan's ruling earlier this month that he does not have immunity in the case, arguing that he could not be prosecuted for official actions he took as president.
Prosecutors in the case allege that he orchestrated a scheme to frustrate the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden after the 2020 election, culminating in the deadly January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.
He was charged with four counts in August, including conspiracy to defraud the United States. He denies all wrongdoing, and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Chutkan had earlier rejected Trump’s arguments over immunity, writing in a ruling that the office of the president "does not confer a lifelong 'get-out-of-jail-free' pass."
Prosecutors had Chutkan not to pause the case while the appeal on the issue of immunity was ongoing, saying the judge could continue to resolve issues unrelated to the appeal while the immunity claim is pending in appeals courts
But Trump's lawyers accused prosecutors of trying to rush the case through before next year's presidential election as they told the judges to take their time.
Trump faces four criminal prosecutions in four different cities.
He is charged in Florida with illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and faces a state prosecution in Georgia that accuses him of trying to subvert that state's 2020 presidential election and a New York case that accuses him of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress.
The cases will be of high political importance, as Trump is the Republican Party’s frontrunner for the presidential nomination, and is therefore most likely to face off against Joe Biden in the 2024 race.
Separately on Wednesday, testimony in a civil case faced by the ex-president in New York concluded.
In that case, senior executives of the Trump Organization, including the former president and his two adult sons are accused of massively inflating the value of their properties by over $2bn (£1.65bn) in order to secure favourable loans.
