Here’s How the Manhattan Trial’s Timing Could Affect the Washington Election Case


Judge Juan Manuel Merchan’s decision to start former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan next month opens the possibility that Trump’s federal trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election could take place in the late spring or early summer.

But the scheduling of the election interference case, which is taking place in Washington, is now in the hands of the Supreme Court. The justices will soon have to decide whether — and how quickly — to hear Trump’s arguments about having the underlying charges in that case dismissed with a sweeping claim of executive immunity.

The election trial in Washington had initially been set to begin March 4. But the judge overseeing it, Tanya Chutkan, recently scrapped that date as Trump pursued his immunity claims.

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Merchan has set the hush money case for March 25 in Manhattan, noting on Thursday that the trial could last about six weeks. He also mentioned that he had spoken to Chutkan about the timing of their cases, all but sealing that the Washington matter would not go to trial until May at the earliest.

If the Supreme Court quickly decides to bypass hearing Trump’s immunity appeal, it is in theory possible that the election interference case could go in front of a jury by late May. But if the court elects to hear the challenge, even if it moves expeditiously to resolve it, the case is more likely to go to trial sometime in the summer.

There is one option, however, that would keep the case from going to trial until after the election, and that is if the Supreme Court decides to hear Trump’s immunity appeal but takes its time on issuing a ruling.

c.2024 The New York Times Company

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