By the close of business on Monday, another piece in the intricate puzzle of the four criminal cases involving former President Donald J. Trump could fall into place. Specifically, there could be a designated date set for Mr. Trump’s federal trial on charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
During a scheduled hearing on Monday morning in Washington’s Federal District Court, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan will consider and potentially determine the trial date.
In court documents filed this month, both the government and Mr. Trump’s legal team proposed ambitious schedules for the trial. Prosecutors suggested that the case be presented before a jury as early as January 2, while the defense requested a delay of more than two years until April 2026. As Judge Chutkan weighs the arguments, another legal proceeding related to Mr. Trump will unfold on Monday in federal court in Atlanta, highlighting the complexity of bringing these charges to trial.
Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, recently recommended commencing a trial in March for her case against Mr. Trump, wherein he is charged with tampering with the 2020 election in the state. However, the specific date remains uncertain due to the ongoing maneuvering among prosecutors regarding the timing of the various cases, as well as disparate preferences among Mr. Trump’s 18 co-defendants. Some defendants aim to commence the trial as early as this fall, while others prefer a slower pace.
Simultaneously with Judge Chutkan’s session in Washington, a federal judge in Atlanta will conduct a hearing to determine whether one of the co-defendants in the Georgia case, Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s former White House chief of staff, can transfer his charges from the state judicial system to federal court.
Mr. Meadows argues that he is immune to state charges since all the acts underlying the accusations against him were performed in his official capacity as a federal official. However, prosecutors working for Ms. Willis contend that the charges pertain to Mr. Meadows’s political activities during a re-election campaign, placing them outside the sphere of his formal government responsibilities.
In January 2021, Mr. Meadows was on the line when Mr. Trump called Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, and asked him to find enough votes for Mr. Trump to win the election. Last week, prosecutors issued a subpoena to have Mr. Raffensperger, among others, testify at the Atlanta hearing.
While the selection of a trial date is typically a routine matter determined by factors such as the number of defendants, the amount of evidence, and the schedules of the judge, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, the timetables for Mr. Trump’s four trials assume significant importance. Not only do these trials involve multiple cases, each requiring its own slot, they also coincide with Mr. Trump’s busy calendar as a leading contender for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
Adding to the complexity, Mr. Trump has not concealed his desire, expressed in private conversations with his aides, to resolve his legal entanglements by winning the election. If either of the two federal trials he is facing is postponed until after the race, and if Mr. Trump emerges victorious, he could potentially seek self-pardon upon assuming office or have his attorney general dismiss the cases altogether.
During Monday’s hearing in Washington, Judge Chutkan has indicated that she intends to discuss a schedule for handling any classified material that may arise as evidence in the case. If she ultimately accedes to the government’s request to commence the trial in January, it would mark the first of Mr. Trump’s four cases to undergo courtroom examination.
Early this month, prosecutors from the office of special counsel Jack Smith brought forth an indictment against Mr. Trump in Washington after an exhaustive investigation. The indictment charges the former president with three overlapping conspiracies: defrauding the United States, obstructing the certification of the election during a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021, and depriving people of their rights to have their votes counted.
Another one of Mr. Trump’s trials, in which he faces 34 felonies linked to hush money payments to a porn star before the 2016 election, is slated to begin in March in a state court in Manhattan. Additionally, he is accused of unlawfully retaining numerous classified documents after leaving office, with that case expected to go to a jury in May in Federal District Court in Fort Pierce, Florida.
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