Former US President Donald Trump was promised a legal marathon in 2024. He is expected to learn the date of his appointment to the federal judiciary in Washington on Monday over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election result, in what may be the most serious lawsuit awaiting him.
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No sooner wraps the historic episode of his mugshot taken in a Georgia (Southeast) jail on Aug. 24, a first for a former president, a consequence of his fourth criminal indictment, the fate of the Republican primary favorite will depend in part on it on Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan’s decision.
Special Attorney Jack Smith has suggested that Donald Trump’s trial in federal court in Washington should begin on Jan. 2, 2024, and estimates it “should last no longer than four to six weeks.”
That date “represents a reasonable balance between the defendant’s right to prepare his defense and the strong public interest in a speedy trial,” argued Jack Smith in such an iconic case.
Defenders have suggested a much more distant date: April 2026, well after the November 2024 presidential election.
“The public interest lies in a fair and just trial and not in the haste of a judgment,” they argued, referring to the mass of documents to be examined. If the prosecution’s proposed timeline were to be maintained, reading all the plays would be tantamount to “reading Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ cover to cover 78 times a day” until the beginning of the trial.
Judge Chutkan will hear the arguments of the two parties, this time verbally, starting at 10 a.m. Monday, before setting a date.
Most legal experts believe that the two-and-a-half-year period requested by the former President’s attorney is excessive and expect a period more in line with what the prosecutor would like.
“It is undoubtedly a provocation to Ms. Chutkan. She’s got a serious proposal and a stupid proposal coming up,” law professor and former prosecutor Harry Litman told MSNBC on Friday.
“I think she will show her moderation and leave no room for the argument that the trial would be rushed,” he added, anticipating a date “around March or April” of 2024.
Moreover, Judge Donald Trump has already warned against any “seditious statement that might interfere with jury selection,” which could only encourage the judge to set an early date for the trial.
In any case, his decision will have a serious impact on the electoral fate of Donald Trump, who is currently being pursued at federal levels in Washington and Florida (Southeast), as well as by the judiciary of the states of New York and Georgia.
Negotiation dates have already been set for New York and Florida: March and May 2024 respectively, but this schedule could change.
“My understanding is that the four judges in charge of these cases have attempted to coordinate the order of trials, and that prosecutors in New York and Georgia will delay their trials out of deference to the federal cases,” said Carl Tobias, professor of law Law degree from the University of Richmond AFP.
Donald Trump systematically traces his legal woes to the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden, whom he may find in 2024 on his way to a 2020 re-election campaign.
Citing “election interference,” the real estate tycoon reiterated his will for these processes to take place after the vote.
For Whit Ayres, a Republican political adviser, an acquittal for Trump at his first upcoming trial, whatever it is, would help make his lead in the Republican primary irreversible.
“I don’t see how it would be possible to stop him,” he said in an online interview in his race for the nomination.
“But if he were convicted of a serious charge, I don’t know how people would react,” he continued, “because we’ve never faced a situation that even remotely resembles this.”