Legal experts, including former prosecutors are expressing surprise at the move Donald Trump’s legal team made Thursday evening, requesting his trial in the federal criminal case charging him with attempting to overturn the 2020 election he lost be moved to 2026.
“President Donald J. Trump, through counsel, submits this response in opposition to the government’s proposed trial calendar, Doc. 23, and respectfully requests the Court place this case on the April 2026 trial calendar,” his legal team’s motion reads.
They add, “the normal course for complex, document-intensive cases is not a rush to trial, but a measured schedule that preserves the defendant’s rights to review discovery and raise appropriate motions with the Court. Indeed, the median time from commencement to termination for a jury-tried § 371 charge is 29.4 months many times longer than the government’s proposal schedule.”
On MSNBC, the chyron noting the year also read in parentheses, “not a typo.”
Former Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal exclaimed, “I’ll eat my hat if Judge Chutkan agrees with Trump to start this trial in 2026. Absurd. He’s just afraid to stand trial. Nothing more.”
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MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin took a different approach.
Noting there are “11.5 million pages of documents” which “is, in fact, a lot,” she says, “I wonder how much is really there if you were to take out all duplicates (which discovery software can do), blank pages, and publicly available documents.”
But, she adds, “I too think the date Trump’s team has requested is preposterous. But their arguments as to why Jan. 2024 is unfair are decent. Both things can be true.”
Noted Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias says, “I continue to be amazed at the consistency of the bad strategy of Trump’s various legal teams. Asking for a criminal trial date in 2026 is a joke.”
Former prosecutor for the New York Attorney General’s Office Tristan Snell notes, “Funny that someone who claims he’s obviously and provably innocent would want to delay clearing his name for so long.”
And former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman summed up Trump’s attorneys’ request in just two words: “Chutzpah defined.”
Watch MSNBC’s report below or at this link.
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