Special Counsel demands court violate Trump's Sixth Amendment rights

Trial dates and the right to effective assistance of counsel.

Earlier this month, Special Counsel Jack Smith requested a December 11, 2023 trial date (the date of jury selection, with opening on January 2, 2024) for Donald Trump’s DC criminal case. He promised District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan that such a schedule would “give the defendant time to review the discovery in this case and prepare a defense, and would allow the Court and parties to fully litigate any pre-trial legal issues.”

There is no doubt that December 11 is a fast trial date. January 6 defendants languish in squalid conditions while the Government takes its sweet time to prosecute their cases. Even “regular” criminals – those child traffickers and hookers and embezzlers and Medicare scammers who face charges in federal courts – are afforded trial dates years out.

But let us focus on something more concerning.

Special Counsel Smith isn’t just asking for a quick trial date – he’s asking Judge Chutkan to set a trial (and motions) schedule that violates Trump’s Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel.