Donald Trump: Trial date set for ex-US president on charges of plotting to overturn election results
The trial of Donald Trump on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election result has been set for 4 March 2024.
The date means Trump‘s trial could start almost eight months to the day before the 2024 US presidential election.
And it’s also one day before so-called Super Tuesday, when many states nominate their Republican or Democratic candidate for president.
The former president is currently hot favourite to win the Republican nomination to take on President Joe Biden.
The decision from US district judge Tanya Chutkan denied a defence request to postpone the trial until April 2026, around a year and a half after the 2024 election, but also sets it later than the January date proposed by special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
Judge Chutkan said: “The public has a right to a prompt and efficient resolution of this matter.”
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Trump was charged earlier this month in a four-count indictment with scheming to undo his loss to Democrat Mr Biden in the 2020 election.
Mr Smith’s team has filed a separate federal lawsuit against Trump, alleging his unlawful possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida property, along with his refusal to relinquish them. This case is scheduled for trial on 20 May next year.
Additionally, Trump is facing state cases in both New York and Georgia.
In Manhattan, he is facing charges of manipulating business records in relation to a payment intended to conceal an affair with an adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Meanwhile, in Fulton County, Georgia, Trump and 18 co-defendants have been indicted on allegations of participating in a racketeering scheme aimed at overturning the state’s 2020 election results.
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Trump had his mugshot taken on Thursday – a historic first for a former US president – and was booked in as inmate P01135809 as he was presented with 13 charges at Fulton County jail.
The 77-year-old also posted on X, formerly Twitter, for the first time since 2021 – sharing his own mugshot. It was the first time Trump has used the social media platform since owner Elon Musk lifted his ban.
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Donald Trump booked on 13 charges
Trump accused his political opponents of “election interference”, with the charges coming as he campaigns to return to the White House.
“What has taken place here is a travesty of justice. We did nothing wrong,” he said.
“I did nothing wrong and everybody knows that. I’ve never had such support.”
Mr Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
He wrote on social media last week that he was being prosecuted over what he described as a “perfect phone call” when he asked the Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to help “find 11,780 votes” for him to overturn his loss in Georgia.
Despite the charges, Trump remains the frontrunner to be the Republican Party’s candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
On Wednesday night, he skipped a televised debate between eight of his party rivals and instead took part in an online interview in which he questioned whether Mr Biden would be physically capable of running in the campaign.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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