A federal judge set a March 4, 2024, trial date for Donald Trump’s election subversion conspiracy trial, putting one of the greatest criminal cases in American history during peak election season.
The day is the day before “Super Tuesday,” when more than a dozen states vote in the Republican primary to select the party’s candidate for the 2024 election, with Trump the overwhelming favorite.
Special counsel Jack Smith has requested that the trial of the 45th President of the United States begin on January 2, while Trump’s team replied with an April 2026 start date – 17 months after the election.
“Setting a trial date does not depend on the defendant’s professional obligations so Mr Trump will have to make a date work,” US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said after admonishing the defense that a two-year delay was too long.
The decision could have a pivotal impact on Trump’s hopes of recapturing the White House.
He took to his social network, Truth Social, to demand that the case be dismissed, calling Smith “deranged” and accusing President Joe Biden of sowing “division, anger, and hatred.”
“It will only get worse because these deranged lunatics know no bounds. Someday, however, Sanity will again prevail,” he posted as Chutkan began hearing arguments at a federal courthouse in Washington.
In an early August court appearance, Trump pled not guilty to the charges and was not obliged to attend Monday’s procedural session.
This year, the 77-year-old has been charged with four crimes, twice by Smith and once each by state prosecutors in New York and Georgia.
However, the case before Chutkan may represent the greatest legal risk to Trump, especially if it is the first of what is building up to be a full court calendar for the former president.
“President Trump is not your average person. He’s incredibly intelligent and he knows the ropes,” his lawyer Alina Habba told “Fox News Sunday” when asked how her client would prepare for his upcoming trials.
“He also knows the facts because he lived them.”
Attack on US Capitol
Trump will stand trial in New York later this month on charges of paying hush money to a porn star on election night, and in Florida in May for allegedly mishandling top secret government papers.
Trump and 18 co-defendants are also facing racketeering charges in Georgia for their efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.
The judge presiding over the Georgia case has not yet set a firm date for that trial to begin.
The case before Chutkan charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to hinder an official procedure — the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021, which was stormed by a mob of Trump supporters.
Trump, the single defendant in this indictment, is also accused of attempting to disenfranchise American voters by falsely claiming victory in the 2020 election.
Whit Ayres, a longtime political adviser, believes that if Trump is acquitted in his first trial, he will be virtually guaranteed to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
“I don’t know any way you’d stop him,” he said in an online interview.
“But if he gets convicted of a serious felony charge, I don’t know how people would react to that, because we’ve never had anything remotely close to a similar situation,” the Republican pollster added.
“I’d have to think that a serious felony charge, maybe coupled with some prison time, would at least cause some people to rethink their support.”
Chutkan, 61, was nominated by previous Democratic President Barack Obama and has given down some of the harshest terms to those involved in the US Capitol attack. Trump has accused her of being “highly partisan” and “very biased.”
Chutkan also has a judicial history with Trump, having ruled against him in a lawsuit in November 2021, stating emphatically that “presidents are not kings.”
