Former President Donald Trump insisted on Truth Social this Monday that he would appeal the scheduling established by federal Judge Tanya Chutkan for the trial on his federal criminal charges of election interference. He is not procedurally able to appeal the scheduling order.
“Today a biased, Trump Hating Judge gave me only a two month extension, just what our corrupt government wanted, SUPER TUESDAY. I will APPEAL!” Trump said. In a follow-up post, Trump also suggested criminal charges for “the Committee,” referring to the now defunct House committee that investigated January 6 and the lead-up to that fateful day, including Trump’s own many false claims about the then-recent presidential election. It’s not clear that criminal charges against a past House committee are remotely a thing, though. And the former president’s continued claims that the panel eliminated its evidence also do not reflect reality. There’s currently a public website where anyone can view it.
“This is also just in: He can’t appeal the judge’s scheduling order,” former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The “two month extension” to which Trump referred covers the additional time that Chutkan added before trial on top of what prosecutors wanted. The special counsel’s team sought a trial in January, while the ex-president’s corner had been seeking a trial in 2026 instead — which the judge came nowhere close to accepting, though not for lack of trying on the part of Trump lawyer John Lauro.
In court, Lauro bombastically accused the federal team of having violated an oath associated with their position for even proposing the January trial date and alleged that accepting prosecutors’ aims for the scheduling would have meant a “show trial.” He had raised complaints about the high number of documents involved in the discovery process, when the defense can assemble information relevant to its arguments, though there are many mitigating factors also present.
This is also just in: He can’t appeal the judge’s scheduling order. https://t.co/ZLLMi2XzpR
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) August 28, 2023
