28 August 2023 , 15:33
964
0
Donald Trump has discovered the date his trial will begin in his Washington indictment after his lawyers failed to push it back to 2026 - way after the US Presidential Elections.
A US judge has set a trial date of March 4 for Donald Trump in the federal case accusing him of plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The decision from US District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a defense request to push the trial back until April 2026, about a year and a half after the 2024 election, but also sets it later than the January date proposed by special counsel Jack Smith's team.
Judge Chutkan made it clear to both sides at the outset of Monday's status conference that she considered neither proposal acceptable.
"These proposals are obviously very far apart," she said. "Neither of them is acceptable."
Donald Trump's scandalous The Apprentice sacking and his unexpected replacement
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after surrendering at the Fulton County jail (Getty Images)But, she said: "The public has a right to a prompt and efficient resolution of this matter."
If the date holds, it would come right in the middle of the Republican presidential nominating calendar and the day before Super Tuesday - a crucial voting day when the largest number of delegates are up for grabs.
Trump, a Republican, was charged earlier this month in a four-count indictment with scheming to undo his loss to Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the 2020 election.
The federal election subversion prosecution is one of four criminal cases against Trump. Smith's team has brought a separate federal case accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at his Palm Beach, Florida, property, Mar-a-Lago, and refusing to give them back. That case is currently set for trial next May 20.
Trump also faces state cases in New York and Georgia. Manhattan prosecutors have charged him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actor who has said she had an extramarital affair with Trump, while prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, have charged Trump and 18 others in a racketeering conspiracy aimed at undoing that state's 2020 election.
The vehicle carrying former President Donald Trump, right, arrives at the Fulton County Jail (AP)Trump, the early front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, surrendered Thursday in that case, posing with a scowling face for the first mug shot in American history of a former U.S. president. He has claimed the investigations of him are politically motivated and are an attempt to damage his chances of winning back the White House.
The decision to start the trial on March 4 also potentially brings it into conflict with two other trials Trump faces that month. The Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney has proposed taking Trump to trial on charges of tampering with the election in the state on the same day, while a second trial in Manhattan, which has seen Trump accused of more than 30 felonies in connection to hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, is set to go to trial on March 25.
Trump's recent surrender to the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia, saw the former president booked like pretty much any other defendant. He had personal details recorded, fingerprints taken and a mugshot taken.
That surrender produced the first mug shot in American history of a former US president. Trump has repeatedly taken to his Truth Social platform to rage against the charges he faces, calling the cases "politically motivated" and a "witch hunt".