Trump should balance between trials, election bid: US judge
3 Min Read
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan says the former US President will have to make the trial date work, regardless of his schedule.
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Former US President Donald Trump (AFP)
A federal court in Washington ruled on Monday that Donald Trump's attorneys would not be given the time they wanted to prepare for a criminal trial accusing the former US President of illegally attempting to reverse his 2020 election defeat.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan considered that Trump will have to balance his legal defense with his ambitions to secure the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Trump's attorneys had asked for a trial date of April 2026, far after the November 2024 presidential election, claiming that they needed time to review the government's case.
"Mr. Trump will have to make the trial date work, regardless of his schedule," Chutkan stressed.
Chutkan is set to schedule a trial date for the case, which is one of four criminal cases filed against the former US president.
Special Counsel Jack Smith has requested that the trial begin on January 2, 2024, 11 months before the presidential election.
Trump has dismissed all four criminal charges as politically motivated attempts to prevent him from returning to office.
He has pleaded not guilty in three of those instances and is scheduled to appear in a Georgia court on September 6 to make a plea in the fourth, as per a court file released on Monday.
Trump has already slammed Chutkan, claiming that she is biased against him.
His lawyers claim that they need time to look through the evidence presented by the government.
"This man’s liberty and life is at stake and he deserves an adequate representation," attorney John Lauro indicated. "We cannot do this in the time frame the government has outlined," he stressed.
Prosecutors have made it clear that most of the evidence is public, such as Trump's remarks and congressional documents. On Monday, they confirmed that they had turned over the majority of the evidence in the case, which totaled around 12.8 million pages.
Chutkan believes Trump's legal team should have received a head start, saying, "Mr. Trump’s counsel has known this was coming for some time."
The forthcoming criminal trials impose significant logistical obstacles for Trump as he seeks re-election.
District Attorney Fani Willis has requested the court in Georgia, where Trump faces charges over his alleged efforts to reverse his 2020 defeat, to set a March 4, 2024 date.
Trump's former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is one of the former President's 18 co-defendants in that case, and he is requesting that his trial be moved to federal court, where he could meet a more sympathetic jury.
Trump is scheduled on March 25 to stand trial in New York on charges related to concealing a money payment to silence a porn star.
The former US President is also scheduled to stand trial in Florida on May 20 on federal charges over allegedly holding classified documents unlawfully after leaving his White House office and attempting to obstruct justice.
It is noteworthy that Chutkan underlined that Trump should quit posting inflammatory remarks on social media regarding witnesses or others engaged in the case.
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