Here's how Trump just contradicted himself in seeking 2026 trial: Legal expert
Donald Trump in Thursday’s request to have the start of his federal Jan. 6 election conspiracy case pushed back to 2026 contradicts the former president’s own claim, a legal expert said.
The contradiction reflects the “peculiarity” of the brief Trump’s lawyers filed Thursday in their request to have the trial’s start date delayed, NYU law professor Ryan Goodman said during an appearance on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, said she will set the trial date on or before a scheduled Aug. 28 hearing. Special counsel Jack Smith previously requested a Jan. 2, 2024, start date.
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Goodman was responding to Burnett’s suggestion that the Jan. 6 case is “the one he really doesn't want to have happen.”
“That’s right, and I think that there's a good chance that the other ones are going to move so the very argument that he's making, that these other pieces are in place, I think those pieces are gonna move, for example, the District Attorney in Manhattan has already suggested that he's willing to move in order to let the feds go first,” Goodman said.
“Also, there's this kind of peculiarity in his brief, because they say that they will accept the government's recommendation that he only needs four to six weeks to prepare his case. So that's true, if it's not such a complex case, you can do it in four to six weeks, then what do you need so many years to prepare?”
“Why do you need two and a half years?” Burnett said.
“Right, so it's kind of internally contradictory. I don't think the judge is at all going to recognize that date is realistic,” Goodman said.
Former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin said she believed the request is “very much a delay tactic.”
“But I mean, just taking a step back and thinking about what Donald Trump is walking into. So, this next week ahead, he's going to have to turn himself over for his arraignment in Georgia, all happening while the first GOP presidential debate, which he's likely not participating in, is taking place,” she added.
“He's also trying to negotiate several different trial dates that he's going to have to deal with in the New Year, which may line up quite well with the primary calendar, whether the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire. He's running for president to stay out of jail, but he's coming up along all these roadblocks along the way of having to actually deal with the legal system that he put himself in.”
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