Promised to a legal marathon in 2024, Donald Trump knows a new date, perhaps the most important: on March 4, 2024, his trial will open in Washington for his multiple attempts to reverse the result of the presidential election of 2020, potentially the most serious of the trials awaiting him. He is notably prosecuted for “fraudulent conspiracy against the United States” (dissemination of false information on fraud and voting machines, pressure on justice and on the vice-president to encourage him to reject the votes in the states won by Joe Biden, designation of “false voters” in these states), “conspiracy to deprive voters of their right to vote”, “conspiracy to obstruct official process” and “obstruction of official process” (the certification of Joe Biden’s victory by Congress).
Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan decided between the proposals of the two camps. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith had proposed that Donald Trump’s trial in federal court in Washington begin on January 2, 2024, saying he would “shouldn’t last more than four to six weeks”. This date “represents an appropriate balance between the right of the defendant to prepare his defense, and the strong public interest in a speedy trial” in such an emblematic case, argued Jack Smith.
The defense lawyers had suggested a much more distant date: in April 2026, well after the presidential election of November 2024. “The public interest lies in a fair and just trial, not in the haste of a judgment”, they argued, citing the mass of documents to review. If the timetable proposed by the prosecution were adopted, the reading of all the exhibits would amount to ” read War and peace from Tolstoy, end to end, 78 times a day”, until the start of the trial. Judge Tanya Chutkan estimated this deadline “far beyond what is necessary”.
The decision is in any case likely to weigh heavily on the electoral destiny of Donald Trump, now prosecuted at the federal level in Washington and Florida (southeast) as well as by the justice of the States of New York and Georgia. Trial dates have already been set for New York and Florida: March and May 2024 respectively, but this schedule could change.