Washington federal judge Tanya Chutkan has set for March 4, in the midst of the 2024 presidential primaries, the start date of the trial against Donald Trump for his role in the assault on the Capitol and other attempts to reverse his defeat in the 2020 elections.
The signaling is a political setback for the former president, marking the start of the hearing right in the middle of the Republican primaries. The date coincides specifically with the eve of the so-called Super Tuesday, which is the day when the largest number of primaries take place: on that day, a total of 15 states will vote for their delegates to the Republican convention, which is held in Milwaukee ( Wisconsin) from July 15 to 18 and where the party's candidate for the presidential elections will be chosen.
Right now, Trump is in first place in terms of expected votes for those primaries, with a nearly 50% rate and a 35% lead over the second-placed contender, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (15%).
However, some surveys indicate that criminal proceedings against the former president may end up harming him. At the moment, the damage points to the presidential elections themselves, and not to the primaries. But it cannot be ruled out that the prospect that judicial problems could cause him to lose the final election in 2024 could end up affecting the primary process –and the internal debate in the conservative party– as the Wisconsin convention approaches and while the trial of 6-E continues its course.
Trump is indicted in the case of the assault on the Capitol with four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against citizen rights, in this case the right to vote.
A mob of thousands of supporters of the then acting president of the United States invaded the Capitol on January 6, 2021 with the intention of suspending the proclamation of the results of the presidential elections held two months earlier and thus annulling Joe Biden's victory over Trump. The insurrection, instigated by the ruler himself in a previous rally before the White House, resulted in five deaths during the assault, plus two suicides by agents in later days.
The defendant's defense requested that the trial be held in April 2026, that is, long after the presidential elections. The special prosecutor for the case, Jack Smith, proposed for his part that the hearing begin next January. Judge Chutkan considered this morning that neither of the two dates is acceptable. And she stressed that of course "it will not be in 2026."
Case 6-E, as it is known in the United States due to the date of the assault, is one of four in which Trump is charged, with a total of 91 charges. The others refer to the attempt to falsify the elections in the state of Georgia, for which a grand jury accused him two weeks ago of 13 illegal acts, to the concealment of hundreds of secret papers in his residence in Mar-a-Lago (40 charges), and the falsification of dozens of accounting documents to mask the bribery of porn actress Stormy Daniels (34 charges).
