Prosecutors targeting former President Donald Trump have a clear strategy: They want the 45th president to be in multiple criminal trials right at the height of the Republican presidential primary.
Trump is leading the GOP primary by a huge margin, and made a move to protect his lead on Thursday.
Citing the massive 11.5 million pages of documents handed over earlier this month by prosecutors, Trump’s lawyers said they’ll need at least 2.5 years to prepare for trial before jury selection can begin.
“If we were to print and stack 11.5 million pages of documents, with no gap between pages, at 200 pages per inch, the result would be a tower of paper stretching nearly 5,000 feet into the sky. That is taller than the Washington Monument, stacked on top of itself eight times, with nearly a million pages to spare,” defense lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche wrote.
That would push the trial back to April 2026. Prosecutors originally asked for Trump to be tried in January 2024.
Trump’s lawyers put the monumental trial date decision in stark terms: It is completely unprecedented for a leading candidate for president to be prosecuted by the Justice Department led by his political opponent.
They also noted that it is common in Washington, D.C. for complex cases to get extended trial dates — which would put Trump’s hearings well after the upcoming election.
“In this District, ordinary order when faced with such overwhelming discovery is to set a reasonable trial schedule, commensurate with the size and scope of discovery and complexity of the legal issues,” the lawyers said.
“The government rejects this sensible approach,” they wrote. “Instead, it seeks a trial calendar more rapid than most no-document misdemeanors, requesting just four months from the beginning of discovery to jury selection.”
The question is ultimately up to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is expected to set at least a tentative trial date during an Aug. 28 court hearing.
Trump’s 2024 calendar is expected to be packed with court dates and campaign appearances.
The 45th president is confronting both a presidential primary season and four criminal cases in four different cities.
Next March 25, he is set for trial in a New York state case related to an alleged hush money payment to a porn actor. Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, where Trump was charged earlier this week with scheming to undo the results of that state’s presidential election, have proposed a March 4 trial date — though that is likely to slip given the complexity of a sprawling racketeering case that involves 19 defendants.
And a federal judge in Florida has set a May 20 trial date on charges, also brought by Smith and his team, that Trump illegally hoarded classified documents and concealed them from investigators.
“President Trump must prepare for each of these trials in the coming months. All are independently complex and will require substantial work to defend. Several will likely require President Trump’s presence at some or all trial proceedings,” the defense lawyers wrote, adding that the cases would involve pre- and post-trial hearings that will conflict with prosecutors’ proposed trial calendar.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article