Judge gave Trump's lawyers 'several' chances to be reasonable before dropping the hammer: Ex-prosecutor
August 28, 2023
Former President Donald Trump's lawyers blew their chance to get a deal for a favorable trial date, argued former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on MSNBC on Monday. The legal team repeatedly highballed their demand in the face of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan's repeated requests to propose a reasonable compromise.
As the trial in the election subversion case begins to take shape, Trump's lawyers have demanded the trial be delayed until 2026 — which special counsel Jack Smith's team has blasted as ridiculous. Chutkan ultimately decided on a date next March, still well before the presidential election.
"Let's start with ... what happened in that court today," said anchor Ali Velshi, filling in for Nicolle Wallace. "It got heated at times. There were times where Judge Chutkan said, you're simply not getting the two-year extension you're hoping for. And in the end, they got two months."
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"It did get heated at times," agreed Kirschner, but added, it "was coming from just one side of the war room, from the defense counsel table. John Lauro, the lead defense attorney for Donald Trump, started loud and only got louder, and twice, Judge Chutkan asked him to please take the temperature down. He was arguing passionately about why he contended he needed two and a half years to prepare the case for trial. Now I will say, Judge Chutkan opened with, neither of the two trial dates that have been proposed, January, this coming January suggested by the prosecution or April 2026 proposed by the defense, neither are appropriate. So I was sort of expecting, maybe, a Solomonic splitting of the difference."
That, however, is not what happened, said Kirschner.
"Here's how it sort of played out," said Kirschner. "She gave the defense team several opportunities to come up with a more realistic proposed trial date. He refused to budge even one month or one day. By the end of the hearing, what she was thinking, she said, your idea and my idea of how much time is necessary are very different. I am setting jury selection for this case on March 4th, 2024. That gives them enough time to adequately prepare for trial."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
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