Fox News’ Jonathan Turley said Wednesday that the dates for former President Donald Trump’s trials have been rushed like he has never seen.
Trump’s legal team has argued that scheduling trial dates before the 2024 election in November is “unfair” and has urged to have them pushed forward. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s charges against Trump in Washington, D.C., were initially scheduled for March 4. However, the Supreme Court agreed in February to hear Trump’s presidential immunity claim in late April, which could disrupt Smith’s preferred timeline. Smith is charging Trump with allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021,
“The real question is what these trial judges are gonna do,” Turley said on “Fox & Friends.” “Judge Chutkan in D.C. said, ‘I’m not gonna consider at all that you’re running for president.’ And that surprised a lot of us because if the Supreme Court rules against Trump on immunity, and sends that mandate back to the district court, and she decides to put the pedal to the medal and actually hold a trial before the election, that trial could conceivably go through the election.”
Judge Aileen Cannon initially scheduled a trial date for Trump’s classified documents case for May 20 but ended a recent hearing without setting a new date, NBC News reported. The Department of Justice (DOJ) proposed a July 8 date, and Trump’s team floated Aug. 12. (RELATED: Jonathan Turley Lays Out How The Supreme Court Just Threw A Wrench Into Jack Smith’s Holiday Plans)
Judge Juan Merchan announced Trump’s trial in New York City will begin March 25 in relation to allegedly paying hush money to former porn star Stormy Daniels regarding their alleged extramarital affair.
Turley said as a criminal defense lawyer, he had never seen a trial get scheduled in this speed.
“Look, I practiced in D.C. I’ve never seen a case like this get scheduled for trial in this speed. As a criminal defense attorney, my hair would catch on fire if a judge said, ‘You know what, I’m gonna give you a couple of months on pre-trial, and we’re gonna rush this thing through,” Turley added.
He then added the “optics” of Trump being in a courtroom is beneficial for his presidential run since the American people believe the establishment “is putting a thumb on this scale.”
Trump is facing a total of four indictments and 91 charges in New York, Washington D.C., Florida and Georgia. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg became the first to indict Trump in August with 34 counts of allegedly falsifying business records to keep the alleged affair with Daniels undisclosed.
Smith charged Trump with violating the Espionage Act in Florida for allegedly having classified documents in Mar-a-Lago and handed Trump another indictment for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged the former president, along with 18 others, with allegedly attempting to overturn the election results in the state of Georgia.