Trump's lawyers propose 2026 trial date in federal election case
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Donald Trump is the front runner for the Republican nomination in the November 2024 US election.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Washington – Lawyers for Donald Trump on Thursday asked a federal judge in Washington to schedule an April 2026 trial for the former president, on federal charges that he allegedly sought to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
That requested date would place the trial after the November 2024 United States election, in which Trump is the front runner for the Republican nomination.
“The public interest lies in justice and fair trial, not a rush to judgment,” Trump’s attorneys wrote on Thursday.
US Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose office is prosecuting the federal 2020 election case against Trump, last Thursday asked US District Judge Tanya Chutkan to schedule a trial to start on Jan 2, 2024. That date is two weeks before the first votes are cast in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
A spokesman for Mr Smith on Thursday declined to comment beyond that earlier court filing.
Trump also said on Thursday he had cancelled a press conference scheduled for next week to release a report into the 2020 election in Georgia, saying his attorneys would put his arguments in court filings instead.
Trump said earlier this week that he would hold the press conference on Monday to release a detailed, 100-page report into what he described as “election fraud” in the state of Georgia during the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
He has been charged in Georgia and in federal court with attempting to overturn those election results.
“Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, irrefutable and overwhelming evidence of election fraud and irregularities in formal legal filings,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Therefore, he added, the news conference was no longer necessary.
Since his defeat in 2020, Trump has repeatedly claimed that the election was marred by widespread fraud. Those claims have been rejected by courts, state reviews and members of his own administration. REUTERS