Justice Department (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith, who was assigned to investigate Donald Trump days after the launch of the former president’s reelection campaign, has pushed back against Mr. Trump’s request to schedule the trial until after the 2024 elections.
Assistant special counsel David Harbach wrote in the latest filing on Thursday that there was “no basis” for this delay, and requested a trial date of Dec. 11, 2023, and that a number of the defenses were legally “meritless” and “borders on frivolous” (pdf).
“The demands of the Defendants’ professional schedules do not provide a basis to delay trial in this case. Many indicted defendants have demanding jobs that require a considerable amount of time and energy, or a significant amount of travel,” he wrote.
Last month, Mr. Trump was arrested and charged with 37 counts, making it the first time a former or current U.S. president has been formally accused for violating federal law. Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty on all counts, and the first pretrial hearing before District Judge Aileen Cannon takes place in the afternoon on July 18.
Christopher M. Kise, attorney representing Mr. Trump, wrote in their request to delay trial, “The Court now presides over a prosecution advanced by the administration of a sitting President against his chief political rival, himself a leading candidate for the Presidency of the United States. Therefore, a measured consideration and timeline that allows for a careful and complete review of the procedures that led to this indictment and the unprecedented legal issues presented herein best serves the interests of the Defendants and the public.”
800,000 Pages of Discovery
The sheer amount of material in discovery was cited as one reason to delay the trial.
“The Government’s investigation into the matters at issue in the indictment has been ongoing for over a year. During that time, the Government collected many hundreds of thousands of documents, interviewed dozens of witnesses, and presented many witnesses before two separate Grand Juries. The Defendants will require ample time to fully study that entire process,” Mr. Kise wrote.
