There is an acknowledgment among prosecutors that Donald Trump’s most important trial is the one for his crimes in connection with January 6th. That’s the whole ballgame, that’s the crime of the century, that’s the crime which poses the most significance to democracy as we know it. Perhaps Trump will be convicted of all of the other charges, but we still need to go through the process of holding him accountable for organizing and inciting a coup against the government. Special Counsel Jack Smith had asked for a January 2024 trial, and Trump had asked for a 2026 trial. Well, the judge has decided that the insurrection trial will begin on March 4, 2024.
A federal judge on Monday set a trial date of March 4 in the prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, rebuffing Mr. Trump’s proposal to push it off until 2026.
The decision by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to start the trial in March amounted to an early victory for prosecutors, who had asked for Jan. 2. But it potentially brought the proceeding into conflict with the three other trials that Mr. Trump is facing, underscoring the extraordinary complexities of his legal situation and the intersection of the prosecutions with his campaign to return to the White House.
The district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., has proposed taking Mr. Trump to trial on charges of tampering with the election in that state on March 4 as well. Another case, in Manhattan, in which Mr. Trump has been accused of more than 30 felonies connected to hush-money payments to a porn actress in the run-up to the 2016 election, has been scheduled to go to trial on March 25. And if the trial in Washington lasts more than 11 weeks, it could bump up against Mr. Trump’s other federal trial, on charges of illegally retaining classified documents after he left office and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. That trial is scheduled to begin in Florida in late May.
Judge Chutkan said that while she understood Mr. Trump had both other trial dates scheduled next year and, at the same time, was running for the country’s highest office, she was not going to let the intersection of his legal troubles and his political campaign get in the way of setting a date.
“Mr. Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule,” Judge Chutkan said, adding that “there is a societal interest to a speedy trial.”
[From The NY Times]
Again, it’s not Jack Smith’s fault that the man he’s prosecuting is going on trial in other jurisdictions around the country. But there is an acknowledgement by prosecutors in other jurisdictions that this trial gets priority. The March 4 date is also interesting because that means the trial starts the day before Super Tuesday, where fifteen states have their primaries.
Trump thinks he can appeal the trial schedule. He cannot. I actually cracked a smile at “election interference” with regards to scheduling the prosecution of Trump for inciting a f–king coup.
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) August 28, 2023
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, mug shot courtesy of Fulton County.
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