U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has set March 4, 2024, as the date for Trump's Federal election interference trial to begin. Taking no nonsense from Trump's lawyers, the date is two months later than Special Counsel Jack Smith stated the United States would be ready to bring its case against Trump, but two years earlier than Trump's lawyers said they need to defend their client appropriately.
"These proposals are obviously very far apart," Chutkan said Monday. "Neither of them is acceptable."
Chutkan said that Trump will have to prioritize the trial and that she wouldn't change the trial schedule based upon another defendant's professional obligations, say, for a professional athlete.
The public has an interest in the fair and timely administration of justice, Chutkan said. Trump's lawyer said that going to trial next year would violate the former president's rights, noting the millions of pages of discovery that prosecutors have turned over.
Judge Chutkan does not seem receptive to Trump's attorney Jon Lauro complaining they can not prepare an adequate defense in anything less than two years. She seemed to suggest the defendant had wasted time not preparing while he knew he was under a grand jury investigation.
"This case is not going to trial in 2026," Chutkan said. She pointed out that Trump's team has had time to prepare already; the public has known about the existence of the grand jury investigating Trump since September 2022 and the identity of many of the witnesses has been known.
A speedy trial is a speedy trial, even if you don't want a trial at all. Seems Trump's first attempt to delay, delay, delay is failing.
