GOP Judges, Lawyers File Brief in Support of DOJ Timeline for Trump 2020 Election Trial

Special counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment against former President Donald Trump, in Washington on June 9, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On Monday, a group of former judges and attorneys who served as officials in Republican administrations filed an amici brief showing support for the Department of Justice’s proposed timeline in the 2020 election trial where a Jan. 2, 2024 trial date has been set. They wrote that it is in the interest of the voting American public that the trial happen sooner, rather than the later date former President Donald Trump’s legal team had proposed.

“This trial will present for decision by a jury of the former president’s peers the momentous question of whether a President of the United States of America committed grave crimes against the United States when he attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” they wrote, citing the charges against former President Trump.

The brief was first reported by CNN.

Citing precedents, they wrote that the Sixth Amendment, the right to a speedy trial, is unique in that it is in the interest of both the defendant and the public, and they believed so as well.

Furthermore, they suggested the trial is not as complicated as former President Trump’s lawyers have claimed.

Attorney John Lauro had earlier this month wrote that the “sheer number of witnesses and volume of discovery alone warrants a continuance,” and the proposed timeline made it “impossible” to review everything necessary “for a case of this magnitude.

The brief reads, “This case is unique and of overarching historical significance to the Nation, but it is straightforward in its trial.”

“There is no more important issue facing America and the American People—and to the very functioning of democracy—than whether the former president is guilty of criminally undermining America’s elections and American democracy in order to remain in power notwithstanding that the American people had voted to confer their power upon the former president’s successor, President Joseph Biden,” they wrote.

Public Interest

Former President Donald Trump’s approval ratings have only continued to climb as charges continue to pile up, with four indictments now in three states and Washington, D.C.

Former President Donald Trump leaves the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on Aug. 12, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Yet GOP donors and pundits who are worried that the legal entanglements may take him out of the elections mid-race fear former President Trump’s continued campaigning will only make it harder to fill the crater left by his absence should he really be taken out of the race. Democrats have shown similar worries for their frontrunner as President Joe Biden’s family is also facing investigations and his approval ratings have only slipped, but party favorites for the nominee have not stepped up for fear of angering the president and hurting their chances of a 2028 campaign.

The amici judges and lawyers wrote that the charges the former president faces are grave, and otherwise cast a long shadow over the pending elections.

“These charges present for decision by a jury of the former president’s peers the most fundamental questions possible under the Constitution of the United States and for the rule of law and American democracy. 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.”

Classified Information and Presumption of Guilt

Former President Trump’s lawyers anticipate ample discovery materials and multiple witnesses, as they have said that an indictment in this case means they will move forward with subpoenaing several key officials in order to “pull back the curtain” on the tumultuous elections and reveal what actually happened.

The amici brief authors expect otherwise. “The trial will involve at most a ’minimal amount of classified information‘ and one ’of the defendant’s attorneys of record already possesses an interim clearance to review certain [of that] classified discovery,'” they wrote, quoting DOJ responses. “Moreover the government has confirmed that it will accelerate its discovery obligations.”

“This trial does not present questions of law that cannot be resolved in the time allocated. The indictment conspicuously avoided charges against the former president that would have presented difficult, even if not novel, questions,” the brief reads, multiple times claiming the case is a simple one that will be resolved quickly, likely finding the former president guilty as about 1,000 others charged with crimes related to Jan. 6, 2021 were found guilty.

“The statutory offenses charged in the indictment have previously been prosecuted countless times against other defendants, including hundreds of times for crimes related to the obstruction of the electoral count on January 6, 2021.”

They quote Justice Antonin Scalia asserting that “laws against conspiracy, incitement, and solicitation” criminalize speech, making it unprotected under the First Amendment, as supporters of the former president and his lawyers have publicly claimed, and go on refuting other lines of defense his lawyers have raised.

The group of authors includes 11 legal experts who have served in Attorney General offices or as counsel in various administrations.