Former President Donald Trump speaks with the press at the Iowa Pork Producers booth during the 2023 Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 12, 2023.Demetrius Freeman | The Washington Post | Getty ImagesA federal judge on Monday set a March 4, 2024, trial date in former President Donald Trump’s criminal election interference case, putting the top Republican presidential candidate on trial in Washington, D.C., seven months before the 2024 general election.Judge Tanya Chutkan delivered that ruling after rejecting two wildly different trial schedules proposed by Trump’s attorneys and special counsel Jack Smith’s federal prosecutors.The Department of Justice’s suggestion to take the case to trial on Jan. 2 “does not” give Trump enough time to prepare, Chutkan said in a Monday morning hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington.But Trump’s proposal for an April 2026 trial date went “far beyond what is necessary,” the judge said, NBC News reported.The jury selection process in the D.C. case is currently set to begin one day before Super Tuesday, the biggest day of elections in the presidential primary cycle.Trump’s attorney John Lauro quickly rose to protest the trial schedule.”In our judgment, that trial date is inconsistent with President …
