Judge sets March 2024 date for Trump election interference trial

Donald Trump’s federal criminal trial on charges of alleged election interference in the run-up to the January 6th Capitol riot is set to start in March 2024, posing a fresh logistical challenge for the former president as he campaigns for another four years in the White House.

US district judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington on Monday rejected Mr Trump’s efforts to delay the trial until after next year’s presidential election, and instead set a trial start date of March 4th 2024.

That is one day before “Super Tuesday”, when Republican voters in more than a dozen states are expected to head to the polls to select the party’s nominee for president.

Judge Chutkan said the former president would “have to make the trial date work, regardless of his schedule”.

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Mr Trump said he would appeal the scheduling, though legal experts said such a move was not possible before a verdict is reached in the case.

Mr Trump is the undisputed front-runner in a crowded field of Republicans vying for the party’s nomination for president in 2024. But his bid for another four years in the White House has been complicated by four separate criminal cases against him, which will unfold in the run-up to the election.

Mr Trump and his advisers have made no secret of his goal to delay the legal proceedings until after the general election next November. He has suggested that if elected president, he could pardon himself of any federal criminal convictions.

Mr Trump’s lawyers had sought to delay the federal trial in Washington relating to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election until April 2026. Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by US attorney-general Merrick Garland to oversee cases involving the former president, had suggested the trial start in January of next year, 11 months before election day, and just days before the Iowa caucuses that will kick off the Republican nominating contest.

But judge Chutkan dismissed both proposed start dates during a court hearing in Washington on Monday, according to US media reports, saying Mr Trump’s work schedule should not influence when the trial takes place. Mr Trump did not appear at the hearing.

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The federal case in Washington is one of four criminal proceedings against the former president, who has been indicted on 91 separate charges in total.

Mr Trump is also facing a case in Manhattan relating to his alleged falsification of business records to cover up “hush money” payments to an adult film star, and a separate federal case in Miami stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified documents. A trial is set to begin in the Manhattan case in March 2024, and in May 2024 for the classified documents case.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump and 18 others were this month indicted in Fulton County, Georgia, over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Mr Trump turned himself into authorities in Georgia last week, where he posed for a mugshot. He and his co-defendants are set to be arraigned on September 6th.

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Critics of Mr Trump contend that his complicated web of legal troubles could ultimately unravel his political ambitions.

But Trump allies say the looming criminal trials have only bolstered his standing with the Republican grassroots who will select the party’s nominee for president in 2024.

Mr Trump’s poll numbers have risen with each indictment, and his campaign said at the weekend that they had brought in just over $7 million of donations since the mugshot was made public late on Thursday.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023