U.S. prosecutors on Thursday asked a federal judge to begin former President Donald Trump's trial on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden on Jan. 2, 2024.
That date would have the trial get underway just two weeks before the first votes are cast in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, a race in which Trump is the front-runner.
U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith's office asked a judge in a court filing on Thursday to start the trial on Jan. 2 in part due to the public's interest in a speedy trial.
Smith's office said that interest is "of particular significance here, where the defendant, a former president, is charged with conspiring to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election, obstruct the certification of the election results, and discount citizens’ legitimate votes."
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately return a request for comment. Prosecutors also predicted it will take about four to six weeks to put forward the bulk of their case against Trump at trial.
Trump last week pleaded not guilty to charges over the alleged election conspiracy. Smith's office said it is prepared to turn over to Trump by the end of August most of the evidence it intends to use at trial in a process known as discovery.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, who is presiding over the election case, is set to hold a Friday hearing on how that evidence may be handled by Trump and his defense team.
Prosecutors also said there is a "minimal" amount of classified information involved in the election case, and asked Chutkan to address that issue at a previously scheduled Aug. 28 hearing.
A January trial would have Trump on trial three times in the first half of 2024. He will go to trial in March over New York state charges that he falsified documents in connection with hush money payments to a porn star. Trump also faces a May trial from Smith in southern Florida over the retention of classified documents after leaving office.
Why are these trials so far away?
technically these would be considered speedy. the judicial system runs on a massive backlog, so these cases would technically be jumping the line due to their importance to the public interest.
Not only that, but it is of utmost importance that the defense have an appropriate amount of time to build the best defense possible. Shortchanging the defense team is a surefire way to discredit the whole case, at least in public opinion, could create a mistrial, could result in having to change judges or venues - all of which ultimately delay or derail the process of finalizing the case.
Is there a place to see the backlog? Like what cases they are on each day?
not certain if daily schedules are available, but all publicly accessible court documents and filings are available through PACER
https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/
you do need to make an account to use it however
Go here and you can type in a date range to see the court schedule: https://media.dcd.uscourts.gov/datepicker/index.html
I count over 30 hearings assigned to Judge Chutkan between now and Jan 2nd.
And even without the backlog it's a nightmare to find a date that works for the lawyers of both sides and the judge.
It's not about trying one person, it's about the entire court system.
DC courts currently have over 800 defendants for Jan. 6, not just Trump, and excluding all the other crimes.
https://wamu.org/story/21/08/02/dc-bowser-superior-court-homicides/
"citing the 10,199 criminal cases pending in D.C. Superior Court in June 2021, compared to 5,707 pending criminal cases in January 2020."
Court system is not known as being "speedy" even in the best of times, but it sure doesn't help that the federal district for DC is also still working through hundreds and hundreds of Jan 6 prosecutions.