WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): The judge in Donald Trump‘s election tampering case will push ahead with jury selection, despite requests from the former president’s lawyers for her to postpone the trial, reports Newsweek. The Washington D.C.-based federal judge, Tanya Chutkan, ruled on Thursday, November 2, that potential jurors will fill out a preliminary questionnaire on February 9, 2024, less than a month before Trump’s trial is scheduled to begin, on March 4. The questionnaire will help assess if they have strong feelings about the former president that might prevent them from reaching a fair verdict.

In making her ruling, she explicitly warned that Trump can’t share juror information on his campaign trial. This is to prevent Trump, who is already under a gag order in the case, from claiming that individual jurors are biased against him.

Jury selection for his election tampering case is due to begin in Washington D.C. in February.
“The parties must ensure that anyone permitted access to sensitive juror information understands that he cannot publicly disclose the information, and no party may provide jurors’ identifying information to any other entity (e.g., the defendant’s campaign) that is not part of the defense team or Government team assisting with jury selection,” Chutkan wrote.

Her scheduling date follows several attempts by Trump’s lawyers to have the case delayed. In October, Trump’s legal team claimed presidential immunity for acts that occurred while he was president. A federal grand jury in August indicted Trump on four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, arising from his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result. Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith is leading the prosecution team, which accuses Trump, among other charges, of submitting false slates of pro-Trump electors from swing states he lost to the Electoral College.

Trump maintains his innocence, accusing prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes. He pleaded not guilty in this case, as he did in his three other criminal cases.Chutkan issued an order on Wednesday, November 1, blocking Trump’s legal team from seeing some of the government’s evidence against him that has been deemed classified.

Chutkan granted the government’s motion to allow prosecutors to withhold “certain classified information” from the former president, instead allowing them to provide an “unclassified summary substitution for certain classified information.”

Trump’s lawyers have been accused of requesting classified documents to delay his trials until after the 2024 presidential election.
(Source: Newsweek)