Trump Wants DC Trial Held Well After Election

US District Judge Tonya Chutkan asked the government and the defendant to propose dates for the election interference trial on charges being prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith. The Justice Department proposed Jan. 2, 2024, which would be in keeping with "the public's strong interest in a speedy trial," last week's filing says. On Thursday, former President Donald Trump's lawyers answered that April 2026 would be better, NBC News reports. "The administration has devoted tens of millions of dollars to this effort, creating a special counsel's office with dozens of employees," the filing says, adding: "The government's objective is clear: to deny President Trump and his counsel a fair ability to prepare for trial. The Court should deny the government's request."

Chutkan has scheduled a hearing to settle on a date for Aug. 28. A yearslong delay—putting the trial well after the next presidential election—is needed because there's so much information for his lawyers to pore over first, the filing says. With 11.5 million pages to review, meeting the prosecution's schedule would require going through about 100,000 pages per day, the filing says. Another complication is the possibility that Trump, who's running for the GOP presidential nomination, will need to prepare for the trial and attend at least some of the sessions, the lawyers write, per CNN. (Trump's court schedule is filling up.)