(Brett Rowland, The Center Square) Attorneys for President Donald Trump argued prosecutors’ proposed schedule in his Washington D.C. case will interfere with his Florida case and amounts to “gamesmanship by a partisan Department of Justice.”
Trump faces 40 felony counts in Florida over his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House. That case is set to go to trial on May 20, 2024. Prosecutors have proposed a Jan. 2, 2024, trial date for the Washington D.C. case. In that case, Trump faces four felony counts related to allegations he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“The Special Counsel’s strategy asking for a schedule in the D.C. Case that culminates in a proposed trial date of January 2, 2024, is not merely gamesmanship by a partisan Department of Justice, it is a miscarriage of justice,” Trump’s attorney wrote in a notice to U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon. “Moreover, it is in no way consistent with the directives set out in the Department of Justice Manual, which encourages all Department employees to, ‘promote the reasoned exercise of prosecutorial authority and contribute to the fair, evenhanded administration of the federal criminal laws.'”
In the Washington D.C. case, Trump’s attorneys have asked for a trial in April 2026, long after the 2024 presidential race.
Trump’s lawyers, Christopher Kise and Todd Blanche, said special counsel’s Jack Smith’s office, which is prosecuting both cases, proposed the January trial date in the Washington D.C. case knowing the “multitude of complicated practical issues surrounding President Trump’s schedule.”
Trump’s schedule includes a six-week trial beginning in October 2023 by the New York Attorney General against Trump and his companies, a contested primary for the Republican nomination and preparation for a March 25, 2024 criminal trial in New York over allegations he paid hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
“The Special Counsel’s actions appear to be intentionally motivated to prevent President Trump from meaningfully preparing for either trial and to simultaneously prevent him from running a campaign for President of the United States,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.
In New York, Trump pleaded not guilty in April to 34 felony counts related to charges he paid hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels through a lawyer before the 2016 presidential election and covered it up as a legal expense before being elected president. That state case is set to go to trial in late March 2024, about three weeks after Super Tuesday, when more than a dozen states vote in the March 5 primary.
In Georgia, Trump was indicted for the fourth time on Monday night on charges related to the 2020 election in Georgia.
Trump has repeatedly said the charges in Georgia, New York, Washington D.C. and Florida amount to election interference. He has denied wrongdoing.
