Donald Trump requests April 2026 date for 2020 election interference trial

Lawyers for Donald Trump on Thursday (August 17) asked a federal judge in Washington to schedule an April 2026 trial for the former president regarding the federal charges that he allegedly attempted to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

A filing showed that Trump requested US District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, DC, to reject the proposal of Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the subversion allegations.

Judge Chutkan is set to decide the trial date on August 28.

Smith is pushing for a January 2 start date in the case, one of four criminal prosecutions that Trump is facing. But the trial might impact his election presidential campaign.

As quoted by US media outlets, Trumps said that he "seeks a trial calendar more rapid than most no-document misdemeanours, 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," Trump's lawyers wrote.

"The public interest lies in justice and fair trial, not a rush to judgment," the ex-president's lawyers said and also argued the amount of documents in the case would require months to process.

They said: "Assuming we could begin reviewing the documents today, we would need to proceed at a pace of 99,762 pages per day to finish the government's initial production by its proposed date for jury selection."

"That is the entirety of Tolstoy's War and Peace, cover to cover, 78 times a day, every day, from now until jury selection," the filling added.

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What did Smith say?

Smith has asked for a January start tothe trial. He previously said in a court filing that the "government's proposed (January 2) trial date represents an appropriate balance of the defendant's right to prepare a defence and the public's strong interest in a speedy trial in the case."

The case is the most serious of four criminal investigations that have led to dozens of felony charges against Trump, including accusations that he attempted to circumvent campaign finance laws by concealing payments to a porn star.

The government also accuses Trump of mishandling dozens of classified documents he took from the White House as he left office, including military plans and nuclear secrets, and plotting with his staff to hide them from investigators.

(With inputs from agencies)

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