Amna: Welcome to the newshour.
March 4, 2024, that is the
tentative date former president
Donald Trump will face trial for
federal charges related to his
efforts to overturn the 2020
presidential election.
Geoff: It's the result of an
at-time contentious hearing
today where Donald Trump's
attorneys sparred with special
counsel jack Smith's prosecutors
and judge Tanya chutkan.
NPR justice reporter Carrie
Johnson was in the room for the
proceedings and she joins me
now.
It is always great to see you.
The federal judge has set March
4, 2024, as the trial date in
Donald Trump's election
interference case.
Remind us what the two parties
were initially asking for.
Carrie: They were so far apart.
Jack Smith, a special counsel in
this case, wanted to start the
trial on January 2, 2024.
Lawyers for former president
Donald Trump wanted to kick this
trial all the way into 2026, the
spring of 2026.
The judge said that is too far
but she agrees that trump and
his attorneys need more time to
prepare in this landmark case
with over 12 million pages of
documents so she set March,
early March 2024, as the trial
date in Washington, D.C..
Geoff: How did she justify this
day in cou today?
Carrie: The judge said Donald
Trump has asked to be treated
like any other defendant and she
is taking him at his word.
She pointed out that if he were
a professional athlete, she
would not set a trial schedule
around the athlete's performance
dates.
The idea that trump is running
again for the white house is not
factoring in her decision.
She said trump had very good
lawyers.
He has been notice for over a
year and he has been under
investigation.
Many other million pages of
documents have come out of his
political action committee or
even his own tweets and posts on
the true social site.
Geoff: Looking at the calendar,
Donald Trump's political
calendar is colliding with his
trial calendar.
How is his legal team going to
deal with the onslaught of court
dates?
Have they explained that yet?
Carrie: It is challenging for
them.
One of trump's lawyers said
today that trump will not get
his due process rights because
of all of these matters that
he's fighting while trying to
run for office.
Trump has called this election
interference by the justice
department and these local
prosecutors in New York and
Fulton county, Georgia.
It is not clear how trump will
balance these things.
Usually, a criminal defendant is
in court for his trial.
Balancing that with the
primaries schedule and possible
debates is going to be a
difficult challenge for him.
Geoff: You mentioned the Fulton
county case.
Former white house chief of
staff mark meadows, one of the
codefendants in that
racketeering case, took the
witness stand today in this
evidentiary yearly hearing --
evidentiary hearing in a bid to
move the case to the federal
court.
What is his motivation in trying
to move this case?
Carrie: Mark meadows is arguing
he's being charged with crimes
in Fulton county, Georgia, for
acts he took as part of his
federal job.
He's trying to make that case
because moving this case from
state court into federal court
will potentially give him a much
more beneficial jury pool from
the surrounding counties and it
could introduce some delay in
this case.
Of course, federal court
proceedings are not televised
whereas any Georgia state
proceedings would be so there
are a number of reasons why
meadows would want this -- to
move this case to federal court.
Other defendants like Jeff
Clark, the former justice
department official in the trump
administration, may be hot on
their heels to move the case to
federal court.
Geoff: If he is successful, how
might that be a blueprint for
other codefendants and maybe
even Donald Trump it his legal
team so chooses to seek action
in the federal court?
Carrie: Not all of these
defendants are similarly
situated.
A bunch of them did work for the
federal government.
Others worked in Georgia so they
may not have as strong an
argument to move the case into
federal court.
As for the former president, he
has already said there's no way
he wants a fast trial in Fulton
county, Georgia, but he has not
signaled whether he will attempt
to move his case into federal
court.
Geoff: Thanks as always.
Carrie: Thank you.
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