As reported by AP, the judge dismissed the defence’s request to delay the trial by multiple years.

Judge Tanya Chutkan refuted the assertions made by Trump’s legal team, who had argued that an April 2026 trial date was necessary due to the extensive evidence review and the unique nature of the prosecution. However, she did agree to a minor postponement beyond the initially suggested January 2024 date put forward by special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution team.

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

Maintaining the present date would present a challenge to Trump’s endeavor to delay the case until well past the 2024 presidential election, in which he currently holds a prominent position as the Republican front-runner for the nomination.

The March 2024 date would guarantee a high-profile trial in the heart of the nation’s capital during the peak of the GOP presidential nomination schedule. This would necessitate Trump to manage both campaign and court proceedings simultaneously, with the trial scheduled the day before Super Tuesday—a critical voting day characterized by primaries in over a dozen states, offering the largest number of delegates.

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“I want to note here that setting a trial date does not depend and should not depend on the defendant’s personal or professional obligations,” Chutkan said.

Chutkan has shown limited receptiveness to Trump’s attempts at prolonging the case, while also expressing unease over his extrajudicial statements made on social media. In recent times, she cautioned Trump’s legal representatives about the boundaries surrounding his public discourse concerning the evidence involved in the investigation. She reiterated her intention Monday for Trump to be “treated with no more or less deference than any defendant would be treated.”

Among the four legal proceedings targeting Trump, the Washington case is only one. The trial set for March 4 would occur a few weeks before a planned trial in New York, where Trump is facing charges related to a hush money payment involving a porn actress. Concurrently, in Atlanta, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows made an effort on Monday to have the charges against him moved from state court to federal court. This action pertains to the case in which Trump and 18 others are accused of attempting to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

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The trial date was established despite forceful protests from Trump’s attorney, John Lauro. Lauro argued that the defence had been provided with an extensive collection of documents from the prosecution team led by Smith, with one prosecutor estimating the total to exceed 12 million pages and files. Lauro further emphasized that the case involved pioneering legal complexities that would necessitate substantial time for resolution, AP reported.

“This is one of the most unique cases from a legal perspective ever brought in the history of the United States. Ever,” Lauro said, calling it an “enormous, overwhelming task” to review such a “gargantuan” amount of evidence.

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AP noted that prosecutor Molly Gaston countered that the public had an “exceedingly” strong interest in moving the case forward to trial and said that the basic allegations in the indictment have long been known to the defence. Trump, she noted, is accused of “attempting to overturn an election and disenfranchise millions.”

“There is an incredibly strong public interest in a jury’s full consideration of those claims in open court,” Gaston said.

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

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.

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In addition to the federal case, Trump is also confronted with legal proceedings at the state level in New York and Georgia. A representative from New York’s state court system, Lucian Chalfen, disclosed that Judge Chutkan recently engaged in discussions with Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, overseeing Trump’s Manhattan criminal case, to coordinate their respective trial schedules. Chalfen clarified that no conclusive decision has been reached concerning the potential rescheduling or delay of the Manhattan trial, set to commence on March 25, 2024.

In the context of the Georgia case, Trump turned himself in on Thursday, resulting in the first-ever mug shot of a former U.S. president, coupled with a stern expression. Throughout these cases, Trump has consistently asserted that the investigations against him are driven by political motives, aimed at undermining his chances of regaining the presidency.

(With inputs from AP)

Updated: 29 Aug 2023, 08:58 AM IST