NAJ screen shot
Staff Report –
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The presiding judge in the federal election conspiracy trial of former President Donald Trump rebuffed defense counsel attempts to delay the trial until after the 2024 election, setting a trial date for March 4, the day before the “Super Tuesday” primary on March 5.
U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, set the trial date later than the prosecution wanted in January, which could set up a potential conflict with two other trials Trump faces early next year.
In the most damning case against Trump, conspiring to overturn the 2020 election by his actions leading up to and including the attack on the Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, the judge set the schedule insisting on a speedy trial as set forth in the U.S. Constitution. Defense counsel asked for a day in April of 2026 to prepare for the trial, considering the “voluminous amount of discovery they will have to sort through.”
Related: Trump Indicted for Trying to Overturn the 2020 Election
“Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule,†Judge Chutkan said. “There is a societal interest to a speedy trial.â€
According to reporting by the New York Times, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis in Georgia has proposed the same date for Trump’s trial on charges of tampering with the election in that state.
Related: Trump and 18 Codefendants Indicted in Georgia for Vast Conspiracy to Overturn the 2020 Election
Meanwhile a second trial in New York, in which Trump is accused of more than 30 felonies connected to hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election, is set to go to trial on March 25.
“While Judge Chutkan noted that she had already spoken to the judge in the Manhattan case, the fact that three of the four criminal cases confronting Trump could go before separate juries in separate cities within weeks of one another reflects the extraordinary nature of the former president’s legal situation,” the Times reports.
Trump now faces indictments in Washington, New York, Atlanta and Fort Pierce, Fla., with prosecutors “jockeying for position.”
“All of them are trying to find time for their trials not only in relation to one another, but also against the backdrop of Trump’s crowded calendar as the candidate leading the field for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.”
Trump has made no secret in conversations with his aides that he would like to solve his uniquely complicated legal woes by winning the election. If either of his two federal trials is delayed until after the race and Trump prevails, he could seek to pardon himself after taking office or have his attorney general dismiss the matters altogether.
Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows’ mugshot in Fulton County, Georgia: FCSO/NAJ screen shot
A separate hearing was being held in Atlanta on Monday morning to determine whether Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, can move his election-related indictment from state to federal court.
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