The suggested date of April 2026 is a counterproposal to the recommendation issued by the Department of Justice last week that the trial begin on January 2, 2024. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team is expected to oppose the request of the Trump’s team, which is seeking to postpone his trial until nearly a year after the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is currently the front-runner for the Republican nomination.
The decision ultimately rests with Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is expected to set at least a tentative trial date during a hearing scheduled for August 28.
In a document delivered to the court late Thursday, Trump’s lawyers said the year-long delay is justified by the “enormous” amount of information they have to review — prosecutors have already produced more than 11.5 million pages_, and due to scheduling issues with the other criminal cases Trump is facing.
As it is, they said they would have to go through about 100,000 pages a day to meet the Justice Department’s proposed date for jury selection.
“If we were to print and stack 11.5 million document pages, with no gap between them, at 200 pages per inch, the result would be a tower of paper nearly 5,000 feet high. That is taller than the Washington Monument, stacked on itself eight times, with almost a million pages to spare,” the defense attorneys wrote.
Eric Tucker is on Twitter as:
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
