Judge schedules Trump federal election plot trial for crowded March 2024
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday set a March 4, 2024, start date for the federal trial of former President Donald Trump on charges tied to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
March 4 is two months after the Jan. 2 date requested by prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith's office and two years before the April 2026 date suggested by Trump's lawyers. It is also the day before Super Tuesday, when 14 states hold presidential primaries. Trump is the current front-runner for the Republican nomination.
The scheduled start of Trump's trial also falls amid a tangle of court dates in Trump's three other criminal trials. His second federal trial, in Florida on charges of illegally retaining national security secrets, is tentatively scheduled for May 20, 2024. Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis also suggested March 4 as the start to Trump's election tampering conspiracy trial there, and a New York judge set Trump's hush-money trial for March 25.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Trump "will be treated with no more or less deference than any other defendant," and "like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule," U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said Monday. "If this case involved a professional athlete, it would be inappropriate to schedule a trial to accommodate her schedule."
After Chutkan set the March 4 date, "Trump said in a social media post that he would appeal," though "scheduling decisions are not generally subject to challenges to higher courts before a conviction is returned," The New York Times reported. "Trump can't appeal the trial date," The Wall Street Journal noted, "but he can seek to delay it through pretrial motions, which his lawyers have signaled they intend to do."
Trump "has made no secret in conversations with his aides that he would like to solve his uniquely complicated legal woes by winning the election," the Times added.
-
‘The economics of WhatsApp have been mysterious for years’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Will Democrats impeach Kristi Noem?Today’s Big Question Centrists, lefty activists also debate abolishing ICE
-
Is a social media ban for teens the answer?Talking Point Australia is leading the charge in banning social media for people under 16 — but there is lingering doubt as to the efficacy of such laws
-
Trump threatens Minnesota with Insurrection ActSpeed Read The law was passed in 1807 but has rarely been used
-
Why is Trump threatening defense firms?Talking Points CEO pay and stock buybacks will be restricted
-
‘The security implications are harder still to dismiss’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Judge clears wind farm construction to resumeSpeed Read The Trump administration had ordered the farm shuttered in December over national security issues
-
Trump DOJ targets Fed’s Powell, drawing pushbackSpeed Read Powell called the investigation ‘unprecedented’
-
What are Donald Trump’s options in Iran?Today's Big Question Military strikes? Regime overthrow? Cyberattacks? Sanctions? How can the US help Iranian protesters?
-
Maduro’s capture: two hours that shook the worldTalking Point Evoking memories of the US assault on Panama in 1989, the manoeuvre is being described as the fastest regime change in history
-
Trump’s power grab: the start of a new world order?Talking Point Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the US president has shown that arguably power, not ‘international law’, is the ultimate guarantor of security
