mass murder there, lewiston, very close to bowdoin college. and he came to our attention because of a school shooting in tennessee that he was trying to bring to the attention of the state legislature and that actually, as people recall, got him expelled. and he, of course, worked his way back in and got elected again, but he is here to consider what this means, what it feels like to him to have that hit close to his college the way it hit close to home in tennessee. i m eager to hear on justin pearson on this. he has remarkably deep and wise thoughts for someone so young on a host of really complicated and distressing topics. yes he s a unique voice. we re lucky to have him here tonight. thank you alex. i have no understanding. those were the under oath words of donald trump jr. today when his temporary job title was witness number 21. called to the witness stand by new york attorney general letitia james to testify against his father, donald trump jr. is a codefendant
set in the election interference case of former president trump, and the timing just so happens to put it one day before super tuesday. the senior national correspondent kevin corke is live in dc with the details on this. kevin good evening. reporter: evening trace. former president trump, a new trial date all set right here in the nation s capitol and for those of you inclined to do so mark your calendars for the fourth of march, 2024, which is, of course, just one day before super tuesday. now, that date is not sitting well with the former president s lawyer john lauer 0 who complained to the federal judge in the case, this is a request for a show trial, not a speedy trial. the judge pushed the trial date to the spring of 2024 telling the former president s attorneys that you re just going to have to make due and make the trial date work. of course pending requests for continuances and snafus and problems that invariably spring up inside and outside the court, so there s that. by t
super tuesday, obviously a little later but not a lot later than jack smith was hoping for, and much, much earlier than trump s defense team had requested. what do you make of the march 4th choice? makes a lot of sense to me, willie. plenty of time for the defense to prepare its case, to do what they have to do. you know, sometimes where you stand depends on where you sit. i spent a lot of time as a federal prosecutor in the eastern district of virginia, so-called rocket docket. cases moved expeditiously. continuances were extraordinarily rare. six months would have been an ordinary window of time to set a case for trial. so strikes me as appropriate. let me also add something, willie. the january 6th case in federal court in the district of columbia is a one defendant, four charge indictment. so it s really not all that complex. if the defense attorneys want to get ready for trial, my advice, and i don t mean this in a
applications for continuances are at the legal discretion of the court. they basically say all motions have to be filed within ten days. the reason she gave that date is because it was a request from one of trump s codefendants. he made a request for a speedy trial, asking for the first week of november, so she said okay. it was not something she dreamed up. shouldn t they separate it out? that is how jack smith did it but she brought a case against all of them together. getting arrested in prime time is the most trump thing i can imagine. i am going to get bumped.
defendant always has the option of withdrawing his demand motion. it appears as though since it was filed so early this could be a strategic move, which he is certainly entitled to do as part of his defense, but this is not something that the d.a. could ask in a core continuance. if she did, she would risk dismissal of the case. if she did, it would seem the judge would entertain continuances. so how does the judge treat that if this defendant suddenly comes back in a court at some point saying i withdraw my motion for a speedy trial? does the judge just accept that and move and just throw him back in the pile with everybody else? usually, yes. and, again, it this is one of