A group of former Republican legal officials filed an amicus brief Monday in support of a January 2024 trial date in former President Donald Trump’s federal election interference criminal case.
The amicus brief cites the Speedy Trial Act and Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution to justify the need for a speedy resolution. The brief also argued that it’s in the public interest to resolve the matter quickly, stating:
There is a surpassing public interest in the expeditious resolution of these questions, in order that these questions raised by the former president’s conduct for which he now stands charged do not continue much longer to cast a dark shadow over America and her democratic system of government and governance.
The officials also argued that a speedy trial was also in Trump’s best interest, asserting:
He [Trump] deserves and is entitled to a speedy trial on these charges in order that he might answer and potentially lay to rest the profoundly consequential questions about his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol that obstructed and impeded the Joint Session of Congress from counting the electoral votes for the American presidency.
The brief concludes with the officials stating, “This Court should adopt the government’s proposed trial date and schedule, in order that defendant Donald J. Trump and the American people receive the speedy trial to which both are entitled under the Constitution and laws of the United States.”
In relation to Trump’s response to his 2020 election loss and involvement in the January 6 Capitol riot, Trump stands accused of conspiracy to defraud the US government, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against US voters’ civil rights. Trump pleaded not guilty to all four charges earlier this month.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith is assigned to oversee the case and has filed for a protective order on some evidentiary materials related to the case due to Trump’s statements on his social media site Truth Social. Trump’s attorney’s attempted to delay the ruling on the protective order but a federal judge dismissed the request. Trump has repeatedly called the charges against him a “witch hunt.”
The election interference case is only one of Trump’s many legal woes going into the 2024 presidential election cycle. Trump has been indicted on 13 charges in Georgia, also related to election interference. He pleaded not guilty to 40 charges in Florida related to the improper storage and retention of classified documents and is fighting a falsified business records criminal case in New York.
