Donald Trump’s trial date set for middle of presidential campaign
Donald Trump’s trial for election subversion conspiracy has been slated at the height of next year’s presidential race.
Donald Trump’s trial for election subversion conspiracy – one of the biggest criminal cases in American history – has been slated at the height of next year’s presidential race for the White House.
The date of March 4 – a full two years before the defence team’s proposal – is the eve of Super Tuesday, when more than a dozen states will pick between Mr Trump and one of his rivals to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
“Setting a trial date does not depend on the defendant’s professional obligations, so Mr Trump will have to make a date work,” US District Court judge Tanya Chutkan told the hearing in Washington overnight on Monday.
Her decision could harm the former president’s hopes of recapturing the White House, and he posted an angry reaction on his social network Truth Social, calling lead prosecutor Jack Smith “deranged” and complaining of “election interference”.
“Today a biased, Trump Hating Judge gave me only a two-month extension, just what our corrupt government wanted, SUPER TUESDAY. I will APPEAL!” he said, although trial dates are usually not appealable.
Prosecutor Molly Gaston said Mr Trump was accused of “historic crimes” and described an “extraordinary public interest” in a quick trial.
The 77-year-old has been slapped with four criminal indictments this year – twice by Mr Smith and once each by state prosecutors in New York and Georgia.
But the case before Judge Chutkan may pose the greatest legal peril to Mr Trump, particularly if it ends up being the first of what is shaping up to be a busy legal calendar for the former president.
Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges in a court appearance earlier this month and was not required to attend Monday’s procedural hearing.
Mr Smith had asked to begin on January 2 but Mr Trump’s lawyer John Lauro described that proposition as “a request for a show trial, not a speedy trial”, calling the idea of having just four months to prepare “absurd and ridiculous”.
“We will certainly abide by Your Honour’s ruling, as we must,” Mr Lauro told Judge Chutkan after she announced her decision.
But he added: “The trial date will deny President Trump the opportunity to have effective assistance of counsel.”
Mr Trump is also slated to go on trial in New York later in March on charges of paying election-eve hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, and in Florida in May for allegedly mishandling top secret government documents after he left office in 2021.
Mr Trump and 18 co-defendants also face racketeering charges in Georgia over their efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in the southern state and are due to enter pleas at an arraignment next Wednesday.
The judge presiding over the Georgia case has not yet set a firm date for that trial to begin.
The case before Judge Chutkan accuses Mr Trump of conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding –- the January 6, 2021, joint session of congress that was attacked by a mob of Trump supporters.
Mr Trump, the sole defendant in this indictment, is also accused of seeking to disenfranchise American voters with his false claims that he won the 2020 election.
Whit Ayres, a veteran political consultant, said that if Mr Trump, who enjoys a commanding lead over the Republican 2024 field, is acquitted in his first trial he would be all but certain to win the party’s presidential nomination at the Republican Convention next July.
“I don’t know any way you’d stop him,” the Republican pollster said.
“But if he gets convicted of a serious felony charge, I don’t know how people would react to that, because we’ve never had anything remotely close to a similar situation.
“I’d have to think that a serious felony charge, maybe coupled with some prison time, would at least cause some people to rethink their support.”
The 61-year-old Judge Chutkan, who was appointed by former Democratic president Barack Obama, has handed down some of the stiffest sentences to participants in the attack on the US Capitol, and Mr Trump has accused her of being “highly partisan” and “very biased”.
Judge Chutkan also has a legal history with the former president, ruling against him in a November 2021 case, notably declaring that “presidents are not kings”.
AFP
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