Former President Donald Trump’s legal team is seeking to push back the proposed trial date for one of four indictment cases against the Republican frontrunner relating to his attempts to question the results of the 2020 election.
For the indictment against President Trump pertaining to his actions on Jan 6, federal prosecutors proposed a Jan. 2, 2024 trial date, less than two weeks before the Iowa caucuses. On Thursday, Trump’s legal team pushed back against the proposal, asking instead that the trial begin in April 2026 to allow the former president sufficient time to prepare.
Citing a 1932 Supreme Court Case, Trump’s legal team argued that though a “prompt disposition of criminal cases is to be commended and encouraged” a defendant must not be “stripped of his right” to prepare and advise with his legal counsel. “To do that is not to proceed promptly in the calm spirit of regulated justice but to go forward with the haste of the mob.”
DES MOINES, IOWA – AUGUST 12: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Steer N’ Stein bar at the Iowa State Fair on August 12, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former President Donald Trump are visiting the fair, a tradition in one of the first states to hold caucuses in 2024. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Calling the case “unprecedented,” Trump’s lawyers accused the Biden administration of targeting their leading political opponent with criminal prosecution. As such, “dozens” of government employees have devoted a full-time effort for the past two and half years investigating the former president, resulting in a trove of evidence “totaling over 11.5 million pages.”
To put the number into perspective, Trump’s legal team argued they would need to read 99,762 pages per day or the equivalent of reading “War and Peace” in its entirety, 78 times a day, every day “from now until jury selection.”
The scope of the evidence in and of itself, the former president’s lawyers argue, should warrant a “reasonable” trial schedule. “Instead, it seeks a trial calendar more rapid than most no-document misdemeanors, requesting just four months from the beginning of discovery to jury selection. The government’s objective is clear: to deny President Trump and his counsel a fair ability to prepare for trial.” (RELATED: Former Trump Advisor Blasts Indictments As ‘An Open Vendetta’ By Dems Who Want To ‘Inflict As Much Pain As Possible’)
Even under the schedule proposed by Trump’s legal team, a total of 12,000 pages per day would need to be reviewed to prepare for the impending trial. While the legal team acknowledges that pace would require intense diligence, it is more reasonable than the government’s proposed date of Jan. 2024, calling the effort “flatly impossible.”