Aug. 17 (UPI) — Lawyers for Donald Trump are pushing to delay the trial for special counsel Jack Smith’s federal election interference case against the former president to April 2026.
The quest to push the trial back comes in response to a calendar proposed by prosecutors. It would place the trial more than a year after whoever wins the 2024 presidential election is inaugurated. Smith’s team had proposed a trial date of January 2 with the presentation of evidence expected to take no longer than six weeks.
Trump’s lawyers argued in a filing Thursday that the delay to 2026 is justified by alleging without evidence that the former president’s legal woes are a political attack by current President Joe Biden.
The Trump team makes a series of scandalous statements in an apparent bid to drum up support from his followers before revealing his proposed timetable for the court deadlines leading up to the trial.
“This is a more reasonable schedule,” Trump’s lawyers claimed.
They also argued that the additional time is necessary because of the former president’s busy legal schedule as he faced three other criminal indictments.
“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 lawyers wrote.
“Without question, President Trump’s obligation to diligently prepare for this case does not end because of other pending matters. However, the court may, and should, consider the practical effects these parallel prosecutions will have on President Trump’s ability to meet the extraordinarily brief deadlines the government proposes.”
Trump would be 79 years old when the trial hits if his proposed schedule is approved.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington is expected to ultimately decide the date of the trial later this month.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wants her election-related trial in Georgia to begin in March 2024 and the judge in the New York case related to alleged hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels is set to go to trial that same month.
The judge in the case of the confidential documents out of Florida has set that trial to also begin next May.