Trump Trial in January 6 Case Set by Federal Judge for March 4, 2024

The decision from 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 of prosecutors.

AP/Jose Luis Magana, file
Rioters on the West Front of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. AP/Jose Luis Magana, file

WASHINGTON — A federal district judge on Monday set a March 4, 2024, trial date for President Trump in the federal case in Washington charging him with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The decision from 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 of prosecutors.

“The public has a right to prompt and efficient resolution of this matter,” she said.

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.

This undated photo provided by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, shows U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. Chutkan is initially assigned to the election fraud case against former President Donald Trump.
Judge Tanya Chutkan. Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts via AP

Mr. Trump, a Republican, was charged earlier this month in a four-count indictment with scheming to plotting his loss to President Biden, a Democrat, in the 2020 election.

The federal election subversion prosecution is one of four criminal cases against Mr. Trump. Mr. 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.

President Trump talks on the phone to Vice President Pence from the Oval Office on January 6, 2021.
President Trump on January 6, 2021. House Select Committee via AP

Mr. 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 an adult film actress who has said she had an extramarital affair with Mr. Trump, while prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, have charged Mr. Trump and 18 others in a racketeering conspiracy aimed at undoing that state’s 2020 election.

Mr. 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 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 New York Sun

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