Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, U.S., on July 29, 2023. REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario/File Photo Get license rights
Aug 17 (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s lawyers asked a federal judge in Washington on Thursday to schedule an April 2026 trial for the former president on federal charges he allegedly tried to reverse his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
That requested date would place the hearing after the November 2024 US election, in which Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination.
“The public interest lies in a just and fair trial, not a rush to judgment,” Trump’s lawyers wrote Thursday.
U.S. special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating the federal 2020 election case against Trump, asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Sudkan last Thursday to schedule the trial to begin on January 2, 2024. From that date it will take two weeks for the votes to be registered. In the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
A spokeswoman for Smith on Thursday declined to comment beyond that earlier court filing.
Reporting by Jasper Ward, Dan Whitcomb and Jacqueline Thompson Editing by Dan Durfee and Deepa Babington
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