Special counsel Jack Smith has proposed taking the case to trial early next year, while Trump's lawyers argued that it should be held in spring of 2026.

The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s criminal election interference case shut down a bid by the former president to set his trial more than two-and-a-half years away.

“This case is not going to trial in 2026,” Judge Tanya Chutkan said in a hearing Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., NBC News reported.

But the judge also said that she would reject a proposal by federal prosecutors to bring the case to trial in less than five months.

    • nachommk@lemmy.world
      12·
      10 months ago

      These are state level charges, right? If he won reelection for president he could not pardon a state level conviction. Only the governor of a state can do that, which is still likely. What moving the trial would do is create a conflict for sentencing a sitting president.

      • Telescreen@lemmynsfw.com
        16·
        10 months ago

        This is the guy who said he could declassify documents using his mind. Whether it’s legal or not, he’ll say he pardoned himself and his legion of terrorists will use that as justification to continue to act like they’re the good guys.

        Incidentally, at least for the Georgia charges not even the governor can pardon him.

      • FlowVoid@midwest.social
        11·
        10 months ago

        This is a federal trial.

        And while some governors can pardon convictions, the governor of Georgia cannot. There is a Georgia state board that can issue a pardon, but only after a sentence has been served.

        • Eldritch@lemmy.world
          5·
          10 months ago

          Isn’t it insane event there are so many concurrent trials Etc going on state and federal for a former president that it’s genuinely hard to keep track of them all. And his cult are ready to elect him again.

        • nachommk@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          10 months ago

          Oh, my fault. You’re right. This is my mistake for getting confused about multiple trials.

          • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
            7·
            10 months ago

            Pretty crazy that it’s hard to keep a former president’s federal crimes trials straight. And the guy is still leading by far in the Republican primaries. Less than ten years ago, Howard Dean’s campaign basically ended because people thought his enthusiastic yell was weird. Now we have a mess of people saying they’d still vote for Trump even if he’s found guilty. It blows my mind.

      • doggle@lemmy.world
        61·
        10 months ago

        The judge referenced in this article is for one of the federal trials. He does have charges in Georgia that he wouldn’t be able to pardon, but who knows how that would go down… leading the nation from a Fulton country correctional facility doesn’t sound like fun.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
      121·
      10 months ago

      We should not entertain the notion that anyone has to power to self-pardon.

      I mean yes, he’ll try it if he’s elected, and his pet Supreme Court judges may even allow it, but the very notion is absurd.