Double blow to Donald Trump trial defence, presidential campaign

Donald Trump was dealt a pair of major setbacks in court but that won’t stop his campaign for the GOP’s 2024 nomination.

Donald Trump could sew up the Republican nomination to take on Joe Biden in an election rematch next year before having to spend weeks in court for four explosive criminal trials.

The former president has lost his bid to delay until 2026 the federal trial over his effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat, with Judge Tanya Chutkan scheduling it to start on March 4 next year, the day before the “Super Tuesday” blitz of Republican nominating contests.

While Mr Trump vowed to appeal the decision, which legal experts said was not possible, the schedule increased the likelihood that Republicans would have decided on their 2024 candidate prior to the bulk of his bombshell court appearances.

The former president already holds a dominant lead over his Republican rivals – which has increased each time he has been arrested this year – who would have to pull off a historic comeback to defeat him.

Donald Trump’s historic mugshot in Georgia. Picture: Supplied

Republicans in at least six states will have voted for their preferred candidate before Mr Trump’s 2020 election subversion trial begins next March.

That is currently the first in a complicated slate of hearings next year, although prosecutors in Georgia are pushing for Mr Trump and his 18 co-conspirators to face trial before then on sweeping racketeering charges over their efforts to overturn his 2020 loss in that state.

On Tuesday, the former president lashed out on his social media platform, blasting Judge Chutkan as a “biased, Trump-hating judge” and claiming the trial schedule was “election interference”.

His campaign spokesman added: “The date set today deprives President Trump of his constitutional right to a fair trial, a seminal bedrock of America, and continues to expose the corruption of the witch hunts being thrown against President Trump.”

But Judge Chutkan said that “Mr Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule”.

And with Republicans due to vote in at least 15 states on Super Tuesday, Mr Trump could lock in the nomination before any verdict was handed down.

Veteran Republican strategist Brendan Buck said: “I don’t think this timeline could set up any worse.”

“You’re starting the trial the day before Super Tuesday. At that point, Donald Trump could very clearly have sewn up the nomination,” he told NBC.

“You start going to trial and day after day after day, you’re starting to face these facts that are really ugly. It could weaken him at the point that it’s too late to change your nomination.”

Mr Trump is scheduled to face court in New York from March 25 on charges relating to hush money paid to a porn star who claimed to have slept with him, although that trial may have to be moved as the federal election subversion case could take months.

The trial over the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents is due to start on May 20, before the Republican Party locks in its 2024 presidential candidate at its convention starting on July 15.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump’s campaign bragged of raking in $US9m in donations – his biggest fundraising day ever – after he was arrested and had a mugshot taken last week in Georgia.

He is due to enter a plea on those state charges on September 6.

Originally published as Double blow to Donald Trump trial defence, presidential campaign