Trump cancels his Monday presser following advice from lawyers, legal team counters trial date

There’s a growing narrative that Donald Trump is beginning to look tired, but there is little doubt that he is a busy man — in addition to running a campaign as the early front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, he is fighting four separate indictments in four different cities along with a number of civil lawsuits.

On Thursday, the former president’s legal team requested a trial date of April 2026 to face charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election, which is the second indictment filed against him by special counsel Jack Smith. The Justice Department recommended a Jan. 2, 2024, trial date, which would have the trial taking place just as the presidential election is beginning to kick into high gear.

Trump’s lawyers justified the date in a court filing by pointing to the unprecedented nature of the case and the “massive” amount of information they have to review, according to Fox News. At 11.5 million pages, that would require them to review about 100,000 pages per day to be ready for the DOJ’s trial date.

“If we were to print and stack 11.5 million pages of documents, with no gap between pages, at 200 pages per inch, the result would be a tower of paper stretching nearly 5,000 feet into the sky. That is taller than the Washington Monument, stacked on top of itself eight times, with nearly a million pages to spare,” the defense lawyers wrote.

Smith and his team are expected to oppose Trump’s requested date, which falls nearly a year and a half after the 2024 election. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is set to decide on a tentative trial date during an Aug. 28 court hearing, will rule on the ask.

Trump’s trial in New York on an alleged hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels is already set for March 25, 2024. He also has a May 20, 2024 trial date in Florida to answer charges filed by Smith over his handling of classified documents. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is requesting a May 4, 2024 trial date — which is on the eve of Super Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in a related move, Trump appears to have heeded the advice of his legal team and canceled a press conference he scheduled for Monday at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort. He had vowed to unveil “irrefutable” new evidence of fraud in the 2020 election in Georgia.

Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment by a publicity & campaign finance seeking D.A., who sadly presides over a record breaking Murder & Violent Crime area, Atlanta. Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!”

Tom Tillison

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