Selected by President Biden specifically, special counsel Jack Smith has vowed to treat former President Trump’s indictment for January 6th just like any other case. Vowing to give him the speedy trial that the Sixth Amendment guarantees, Trump’s legal team claims it’s not enough time with Smith’s claim that the Government would be ready on January 24th.
In a motion to postpone, they wrote, “In this District, ordinary order when faced with such overwhelming discovery is to set a reasonable trial schedule, commensurate with the size and scope of discovery and complexity of the legal issues. The government rejects this sensible approach. Instead, it seeks a trial calendar more rapid than most no-document misdemeanors, requesting just four months from the beginning of discovery to jury selection. The government’s objective is clear: to deny President Trump and his counsel a fair ability to prepare for trial. The Court should deny the government’s request.”
Specifically, the motion went on to request an April 2026 start date. With the explanation that the government had handed over “a massive, 8.5-terabyte initial production, totaling over 11.5 million pages, together with native files, recordings, and other electronic data not amenable to pagination.”
Given the unprecedented nature of this lawsuit, with a sitting President filing criminal prosecution against a former President. Even more so, against a former President who is also the top candidate to go against you in the next election. This means everything will be done from scratch, and special offerings will need to be made. This isn’t an area either side is willingly giving an inch, so they’ll ask for a mile.
However,…. this date is a reach. Even for Trump himself. The American people would expect a speedy trial. That’s what everyone is due, and he should be given just that. Just like it’s not fair to keep him in prolonged pretrial confinement, it’s not fair to keep the government’s resources keeping a case built up for years either. It’s a great expense to the taxpayers.
