Attorneys for Donald Trump on Thursday requested an April 2026 trial date for the former president to face federal charges stemming from his sweeping effort to overturn the 2020 election.
If accepted, the request from Trump's legal team would place the trial date close to a year and a half after the 2024 presidential election—and more than five years after the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Trump, who has been indicted four times this year, is currently the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
The proposed trial date drew immediate scorn from legal experts.
"I assume Trump's lawyers were choosing between suggesting a trial date in 2026 and one in 3026, so 2026 is by far the sooner date," wrote Orin Kerr, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
The request from the former president's lawyers came in response to Special Counsel Jack Smith's proposed January 2, 2024 trial date—less than two weeks before the Iowa Republican caucus.
In a filing, Trump's attorneys complained that "even assuming we could begin reviewing the documents today, we would need to proceed at a pace of 99,762 pages per day to finish the government's initial production by its proposed date for jury selection."
"That is the entirety of Tolstoy's 'War and Peace,' cover to cover, 78 times a day, every day, from now until jury selection," the filing reads.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is expected to set a trial date during an August 28 court hearing.
The New York Timesnoted that "some of the former president's advisers have made no secret of the fact that he is looking to win the next election as a way to try to solve his legal problems."
If Trump succeeds at pushing trials back until after the election and he wins the presidential contest, the Times observed, "he could seek to pardon himself after taking office or have his attorney general simply dismiss the matter altogether. To that end, his lawyers have sought various ways to slow prosecutors in their race to get to trial and have tried to delay the proceedings where they can."
Trump's effort to delay the January 6-related trial came days after a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia indicted the former president and 18 others on a range of charges, including RICO violations.
Georgia authorities are currently investigating threats against jurors who voted to indict Trump. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who led the investigation, has also faced threats and racist abuse.
On Thursday, Trump canceled a press conference that he said would substantiate his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
"Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Editor's note: Glenn Kirshner weighs in:
