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The judge overseeing Donald Trump's January 6 federal case made reference to the 9/11 terror attacks while rejecting the former president's request to delay his trial until 2026.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan noted the length of time it took for a suspect in the 9/11 attacks, as well as the 2013 Boston Marathon marathon bomber, to be brought to trial, while dismissing the former president and his legal team's suggestions that the proceedings were moving forward too quickly.
Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has pleaded not guilty to four charges under Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the events that led up to the January 6 attack, and has accused the inquiry of being "election interference."
Chutkan scheduled Trump's trial into the alleged criminal attempt to overturn the 2020 election for March 4, 2024, one day before Super Tuesday—where several states will hold their primary votes in the biggest voting day of the primary season. This has prompted Trump to further accuse the case of being politically motivated.
While requesting that the trial begin in April 2026, Trump's attorneys cited the 1930s "Scottsboro Boys" case in which nine Black teenagers were wrongly convicted of raping two white women in Alabama and all but one were sentenced to death. The Supreme Court later overturned the convictions, citing that the nine defendants were denied counsel as there was inadequate time to prepare a defense for the trial.
Chutkan rejected the comparison and said that the Scottsboro Boys case was "profoundly different" as the nine falsely accused were brought to trial just six days after an indictment was handed down.
"Quoting the case, the defense argues that scheduling a too speedy trial is 'not to proceed promptly in the calm spirit of regulated justice but to go forward with the haste of the mob,'" Chutkan said on August 28 while referring to the 1932 Supreme Court opinion Powell v. Alabama.
"This timeline does not move the case forward with the haste of the mob," Chutkan added. "The trial will start three years, one month, and 27 days after the events of January 6, 2021."
Chutkan then noted the length of time there was in the high-profile trials of the Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in 2015 and that of a French Al-Qaeda member who later admitted conspiring to kill U.S. citizens in relation to the September 11 attacks.
"The trial involving the Boston Marathon bombing began less than two years after the events," Chutkan said.
"The trial involving Zacarias Moussaoui for his role in the September 11 attacks was set to begin one year after the attacks; but due to continuances, appeals, and voluminous discovery, it began roughly four years later."
Smith's office had previously requested that Trump's federal trial begin on January 2, 2024 as the date would "vindicate the public's strong interest" in a speedy trial. Trump hit out at the claim, and said only a "lunatic" would suggest such a date for his trial to begin.
Posting on Truth Social, the former president has once again hit out at the March 2024 timing of his trial and said he would appeal.
"Deranged Jack Smith & his team of Thugs, who were caught going to the White House just prior to Indicting the 45th President of the United States (an absolute No No!), have been working on this Witch Hunt for almost 3 years, but decided to bring it smack in the middle of Crooked Joe Biden's Political Opponent's campaign against him. Election Interference!" Trump wrote.
"Today a biased, Trump Hating Judge gave me only a two month extension, just what our corrupt government wanted, SUPER TUESDAY. I will APPEAL!"
Elsewhere, a former judge suggested that Trump's legal team made a "stunningly stupid" mistake in referencing the Scottsboro Boys case while trying to convince Judge Chutkan to delay the trial until 2026.
"The comparison is ridiculous," Cordell told CNN. "If you want to alienate a judge in the case, this was exactly what to do. A female judge, a Black judge, and to talk about that case and compare it to Trump's case was absurd.
"And Judge Chutkan really took them up on it and said this case is entirely different. I think she was absolutely offended."
Trump lawyer John Lauro rejected the criticism in a statement to Newsweek.
"The Powell case is one of the leading Supreme Court decisions in this area and supports the proposition that the right to counsel applies to all citizens—regardless of race, gender, or creed," Lauro said. "The landmark decision was cited for its foundational proposition of law, not for any factual parallels. To suggest that it is 'stupid' to cite controlling case law is not only ridiculous, but misleads the public as to the responsibility of counsel to state the law accurately in all pleadings filed with the Court."
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more