1 of 5 | Special Council Jack Smith said in a court filing Thursday the government wants a January 2 date for Donald Trump's criminal conspiracy trial for charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI |
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Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Special Counsel Jack Smith said in court documents filed Thursday that he wants a Jan. 2 trial date for Donald Trump's charges of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
"The Government proposes that trial begin on January 2, 2024, and estimates that its case in chief will take no longer than four to six weeks," Smith said in the court filing. "This trial date, and the proposed schedule outlined below, would give the defendant time to review the discovery in this case and prepare a defense, and would allow the Court and parties to fully litigate any pre-trial legal issues."
Jury selection would start in December under Smith's proposed timeline.
Smith said it also would "vindicate the public's strong interest in a speedy trial" guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
He said that has particular significance because a former president is charged with "conspiring to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election, obstruct the certification of the election results, and discount citizens' legitimate votes."
In the filing Smith said the government expects to have "substantially completed discovery" in the case by Aug. 28, which he said would give Trump's defense enough time to review the discovery evidence in the case.
Smith's filing noted that a speedy trial is not just for the defendant, but also for the government.
"Under both the Sixth Amendment's Speedy Trial Clause and the Speedy Trial Act, the right to a timely trial is vested in the public, not just in the defendant," Smith wrote in the filing.
He said it serves the public interest by reducing defendants' opportunities to commit crimes while on pre-trial release and also preventing extended pretrial delay from "impairing the deterrent effect of punishment."
Trump has also been criminally indicted in Manhattan on state charges for alleged business fraud and in Florida on Espionage Act federal charges that he kept secret government documents with no legal right to do so and failed to return them after he left the White House.
Trump has a civil suit trial set for Jan. 15 in Manhattan federal court in writer E. Jean Carroll's suit alleging Trump defamed her while president.
Carroll won another civil defamation suit against Trump in May when a jury awarded her $5 million after finding that Trump sexually abused her in the 1990s.
The Iowa presidential primary caucuses also currently scheduled for Jan. 15.
