Trump Lawyers Aims to Delay Trial Until After Election Day Amid Court Battles Over Immunity Ruling

Trump's legal team seeks to delay trial until after the 2024 election. Special Counsel Jack Smith pushes back, urging an earlier start. A judge will decide soon.

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Former President Donald Trump’s legal team wants to push his federal election interference trial until after the next presidential election. On Friday, they suggested a trial schedule that would delay discussing whether Trump’s actions are protected by presidential immunity until after the election. 

If this plan goes through, the trial could be delayed until after the next president takes office.

Special Counsel Jack Smith disagrees and wants to move faster. He argues that the court should start looking at whether Trump’s actions are covered by immunity right away. Smith’s team worries that delaying the trial would stop new evidence from being found and reviewed quickly. 

“The government is ready to file a motion for immunity as soon as the court allows,” said Senior Assistant Special Counsel Molly Gaston.

Trump’s legal team also wants to talk about other legal issues before the court decides if some of the charges against Trump should be thrown out based on a recent Supreme Court decision. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has set a hearing for Thursday to discuss the future of this case, which was originally planned to start in March 2024.

Although Trump’s lawyers didn’t directly mention the upcoming election, the timeline they proposed would prevent any major legal arguments until after the election. 

 

Trump is accused of trying to cheat the American public by falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen, leading to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump has pleaded not guilty and keeps insisting, without proof, that the 2020 election was rigged against him. He’s also starting to suggest that the next election could be rigged too.

If Trump wins the 2024 election, he might be able to stop the case against him before it even goes to trial, as his new administration would take charge of the Justice Department in January 2025.

Trump's legal team has said they are “considering several challenges” to the new charges brought against him by a federal grand jury. They believe these challenges should be decided in Trump’s favor, possibly ending the case before it goes any further. 

One of their challenges is likely to question the legality of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment, an argument they used successfully in another case in Florida.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has already disagreed with a decision by a Trump-appointed judge in Florida who ruled that Smith's appointment was illegal. 

Trump’s legal team also argues that some of the actions mentioned in the indictment, like Trump’s tweets and statements about the 2020 election, should be protected from prosecution. They might also try to get the indictment thrown out completely.

Trump’s team proposed a trial schedule where the first hearing would happen in late January 2025, right after the next president takes office. They suggested that more proceedings could happen in spring or fall 2025 if needed.

If this delay strategy works, it would push the trial far back, making it possible that the case wouldn’t finish until after the next president is already in office.