DOJ Says Trump’s Motion to Delay Trial Until After Elections ‘Borders on Frivolous’

Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump prepares to deliver remarks at a Nevada Republican volunteer recruiting event at Fervent: A Calvary Chapel in Las Vegas on July 8, 2023. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Justice Department (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith, who was assigned to investigate Donald Trump days after the launch of the former president’s reelection campaign, has pushed back against Mr. Trump’s request to schedule the trial until after the 2024 elections.

Assistant special counsel David Harbach wrote in the latest filing on Thursday that there was “no basis” for this delay, and requested a trial date of Dec. 11, 2023, and that a number of the defenses were legally “meritless” and “borders on frivolous” (pdf).

“The demands of the Defendants’ professional schedules do not provide a basis to delay trial in this case. Many indicted defendants have demanding jobs that require a considerable amount of time and energy, or a significant amount of travel,” he wrote.

Special counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment against former President Donald Trump at the Justice Department in Washington on on June 9, 2023. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Last month, Mr. Trump was arrested and charged with 37 counts, making it the first time a former or current U.S. president has been formally accused for violating federal law. Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty on all counts, and the first pretrial hearing before District Judge Aileen Cannon takes place in the afternoon on July 18.

Christopher M. Kise, attorney representing Mr. Trump, wrote in their request to delay trial, “The Court now presides over a prosecution advanced by the administration of a sitting President against his chief political rival, himself a leading candidate for the Presidency of the United States. Therefore, a measured consideration and timeline that allows for a careful and complete review of the procedures that led to this indictment and the unprecedented legal issues presented herein best serves the interests of the Defendants and the public.”

800,000 Pages of Discovery

The sheer amount of material in discovery was cited as one reason to delay the trial.

“The Government’s investigation into the matters at issue in the indictment has been ongoing for over a year. During that time, the Government collected many hundreds of thousands of documents, interviewed dozens of witnesses, and presented many witnesses before two separate Grand Juries. The Defendants will require ample time to fully study that entire process,” Mr. Kise wrote.

But Mr. Harbach says although the government provided “over 800,000 pages, the set of ‘key’ documents was only about 4,500 pages.”

He further added that a third of those 800,000 pages were email headers and footers, without content, and that the “nine months of CCTV footage” was not from nine continuous months.

The case began more than two years ago when the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requested Mr. Trump return certain documents, and NARA said it found documents marked “classified,” though Mr. Trump maintains he had declassified the materials as president. This led to the FBI searching Mar-a-Lago.

Mr. Kise had also argued that due to the sensitive nature of the discovery documents and the difficulty of selecting an impartial jury during a national presidential election it was prudent to wait.

Mr. Harbach dismissed the arguments, writing that the “more time-consuming” process of putting together this jury was a reason to start the trial sooner rather than later, and that the defense had enough time to review all materials.

DOJ in Other Cases

Mr. Trump is involved in several other ongoing cases.

On Tuesday, the DOJ stepped in on a civil lawsuit and said it would no longer shield him from a defamation case brought by columnist E. Jean Caroll.

“The Department has determined that there is no longer a sufficient basis to conclude that the former President was motivated by ’more than an insignificant' desire to serve the United States Government,” it wrote.

Mr. Trump is also set to testify in a case brought against the DOJ by former FBI agent Peter Strzok, despite the DOJ repeatedly trying to block Mr. Trump’s deposition.

“Given the limited nature of the deposition that has been ordered, and the fact that the former President’s schedule appears to be able to accommodate other civil litigation that he has initiated, the outcome of the balancing required by the apex doctrine remains the same for all of the reasons previously stated,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote.

Support Strong Despite Indictment

Despite the barrage of legal action, Mr. Trump continues to pull ahead in the polls, leading by around 30 points. Approval had surged with the announcement of his two indictments earlier this year, and supporters have continued to flock to his rallies in droves.

An estimated 30,000 people flood the streets of Pickens, S.C., for a pre-Independence Day rally supporting former President Donald Trump as he is campaigning to retake the White House on July 1, 2023. Janice Hisle/The Epoch Times

The former president remained undeterred, giving a speech the same night of his arraignment, and responding frequently on social media to various charges.

“I’m beating Biden in the Polls by the biggest margins ever. I assume that means there’ll be another Indictment & Arrest coming down the tracks very soon,” he wrote on Truth Social Thursday.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misquoted a phrase from the motion. The Epoch Times regrets the error.