If federal Judge Tanya Chutkan grants the request, the trial of the current frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination will begin days before the anniversary of the January 6, 2021 insurrection on Capitol Hill, which was fueled by the falsehoods of Trump about the choice.
The proposed date also precedes by a few days the first votes in the Republican internal election, which begins with the caucuses scheduled for January 15 in Iowa.
The request by prosecutors to move quickly to trial in federal court in Washington is likely to lead to a showdown with the defense, which has already hinted it will try to slow down the process. Smith’s team says the prosecution’s case will take four to six weeks.
“The June 2 date would be a vindication of the public’s interest in a speedy trial, an interest guaranteed by the Constitution and federal law in all cases, but particularly important in this one, where the defendant, a former president, must respond to charges of conspiring to nullify the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election, obstructing the certification of election results, and discounting legitimate citizen votes,” prosecutors said in their brief.
Trump’s lawyers have not submitted their proposed date. The judge is expected to set the date at a hearing scheduled for August 28.
Trump is due to appear in court in New York on March 25, during the presidential primaries, in a criminal trial for paying bribes during the 2016 campaign. confidential documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
The charges in Washington include conspiracy to defraud the United States with a weeks-long plot to subvert the will of voters and hold on to power he lost in the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump is accused of spreading lies about voter fraud, knowing there was no such thing, in order to sow distrust of the democratic process and put pressure on Vice President Mike Pence and state election officials in a brazen attempt to cling to power.
Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, says the investigation is politically motivated. His defense team will argue that he was following the advice of his lawyers in 2020 and that he had the right to challenge an election that he considered rigged.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
