In a major setback for former US President Donald Trump, a court set March 4, 2024, as the historic trial date in the federal case in Washington charging him with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Rejecting a defence request to push back the case by years, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan rebuffed claims by Trump’s attorneys that an April 2026 trial date was necessary to account for the huge volume of evidence they say they are reviewing and to prepare for what they contend is a novel and unprecedented prosecution.
But she agreed to postpone the trial slightly beyond the January 2024 date proposed by special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution team. “The public has a right to a prompt and efficient resolution of this matter,” Chutkan said.
Why March would be a disastrous month for Trump?
If the current date holds, it would represent a setback to Trump’s efforts to push the case back until well after the 2024 presidential election, a contest in which he’s the early front-runner for the Republican nomination.
The March 2024 date would also ensure a blockbuster trial in the nation’s capital in the heat of the GOP presidential nominating calendar, forcing Trump to juggle campaign and courtroom appearances and coming the day before Super Tuesday — a crucial voting day when more than a dozen states will hold primaries and when the largest number of delegates are up for grabs.
“I want to note here that setting a trial date does not depend and should not depend on the defendant’s personal or professional obligations,” Chutkan said.
Judge raises concerns over Trump's public and social media comments
Chutkan has so far appeared cool to Trump’s efforts to delay the case but also concerned by social media comments he’s made outside court. This month, she warned Trump’s legal team that there were limits on what he can say publicly about evidence in the investigation. She reiterated her intention on Monday for Trump to be “treated with no more or less deference than any defendant would be treated.”
The Washington case is one of four prosecutions Trump is facing. A March 4 trial would take place just weeks before a scheduled New York trial in a case charging him in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress. Meanwhile, in Atlanta on Monday, where Trump and 18 others were charged with trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows argued to try to get the charges against him transferred from state court to federal court.
The setting of the trial date came despite strong objections from Trump lawyer John Lauro. He said defence lawyers had received an enormous trove of records from Smith’s team — a prosecutor put the total at more than 12 million pages and files — and said the case concerned novel legal issues that would require significant time to sort out.
“This is one of the most unique cases from a legal perspective ever brought in the history of the United States. Ever,” Lauro said, calling it an “enormous, overwhelming task” to review such a “gargantuan” amount of evidence.
Prosecutor Molly Gaston countered that the public had an “exceedingly” strong interest in moving the case forward to trial and said that the basic allegations in the indictment have long been known to the defence. Trump, she noted, is accused of “attempting to overturn an election and disenfranchise millions.” “There is an incredibly strong public interest in a jury’s full consideration of those claims in open court,” Gaston said.
Trump facing multiple charges
Trump, a Republican, was charged this month in a four-count indictment with scheming to undo his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Smith’s team has brought a separate federal case accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at his Palm Beach, Florida, property, Mar-a-Lago, and refusing to give them back. That case is currently set for trial next May 20.
Trump also faces the state cases in New York and Georgia. A spokesperson for New York’s state court system, Lucian Chalfen, said Chutkan recently spoke with the judge in Trump’s Manhattan criminal case, Juan Manuel Merchan, about their respective trials ahead. Chalfen said no decision has been made regarding postponing or rescheduling the Manhattan trial, which is to begin on March 25, 2024.
Trump surrendered Thursday in the Georgia case, posing with a scowl for the first mug shot in American history of a former U.S. president. He has claimed the investigations of him are politically motivated attempts to damage his chances of winning back the White House.
(With inputs from agency)
