Donald Trump will face his first of four criminal trials during the 2024 presidential election, a federal judge ordered on Monday. In a Washington, D.C., hearing on the case over his efforts to overturn the last presidential election, Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the trial to begin on March 4, 2024.
The trial date is a major loss for Trump’s legal team, who had argued that the case go to trial in April 2026 due to the millions of pages of discovery material handed over in the case — and not coincidentally at a point in time when Trump may be president again and abort the case. “You’re not going to get two more years,” Chuktan told Trump’s attorney, John Lauro.
Though Chutkan also refused special counsel Jack Smith’s preferred timeline that would begin jury selection this December, a March date is a lot closer to what the government requested. “These proposals are obviously very far apart,” Chutkan said. “Neither of them is acceptable.”
Chutkan also said she would not take the Republican primary into consideration, as evidenced by the trial starting one day before Super Tuesday when a considerable share of states will cast ballots. “Mr. Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work, regardless of his schedule,” she said. Chutkan determined the date in March after prosecutors noted that a speedy trial would be especially important due frequent comments from Trump, who has pleaded not guilty, about the case that could taint the jury pool.
As for the other cases against the former president, the judge overseeing the case against Trump in Georgia has not yet determined a trial date, with the number of co-defendants (19) causing some scheduling issues. The federal case against Trump for withholding classified documents will begin in May 2024 — after the majority of Republican voters have already weighed in with their primary choices. And while the criminal case in Manhattan against Trump will also begin in March 2024, District Attorney Alvin Bragg has previously said he would be willing to request the trial be pushed back to make room for Smith. But if Trump were to be found guilty at a trial in next spring, GOP voters would have to reckon with electing a convicted criminal as their choice for president — a prospect many of his supporters appear to have no problem with.
