'It's getting real': Judge Chutkan sets Trump jury selection three months from now

Start the countdown, Special Counsel Jack Smith can begin selecting jurors in his criminal election fraud case against former President Donald Trump in just three months, according to court records.

Judge Tanya Sue Chutkan on Thursday set Feb. 9 as the date when hundreds of potential jurors in Washington D.C. will receive copies of a questionnaire to determine their eligibility to take part in the federal case against Trump.

Responded one Politico reporter, in all caps, "It's getting real."

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The historic trial is slated to begin on March 4, 2024, the same year Trump hopes to reclaim the White House in a general election against Joe Biden.

Chutkan limited attorneys' ability to investigate potential jurors to openly accessible research databases and ordered them not to share any names with the public.

These limitations arrived as Smith raised concerns about Trump's history of using social media "as a weapon of intimidation in court proceedings," the Associated Press notes.

Trump stands accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. It's one of four criminal court cases the top Republican candidate faces.

He denies the charges.