GOP legal experts file amicus brief backing January trial for Trump

A group of conservative legal experts on Monday filed an amicus brief in support of the Jan. 2 proposed trial date in the federal criminal case against former President Trump over his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election. 

The group, which comprises former attorneys and judges who served or were appointed during Republican administrations, argued the repercussions of this trial on American democracy “could not be any more profound” and endorsed the trial date proposed by special counsel Jack Smith’s team, as opposed to the significantly later time frame suggested by Trump.

“There is no more important issue facing America and the American People — and to the very functioning of democracy — than whether the former president is guilty of criminally undermining America’s elections and American democracy in order to remain in power notwithstanding that the American people had voted to confer their power upon the former president’s successor, President Joseph Biden,” they wrote. 

The friend-of-the-court brief argued it was in the best public interest to have a speedy trial, and the American people have a right to see the legal matters resolved. Trump is running for another term in the White House in 2024 and is, by far, the front-runner in hypothetical GOP primary polls.

“There is a surpassing public interest in the expeditious resolution of these questions, in order that these questions raised by the former president’s conduct for which he now stands charged do not continue much longer to cast a dark shadow over America and her democratic system of government and governance,” they argued.

The experts acknowledged efforts by the Trump team to delay the trial and argued that while “the questions presented are profound, the impending trial of the former president on these serious offenses should be straightforward, presenting little just cause for delay beyond the government’s proposed schedule and trial date.”

In making the argument the case should be straight-forward, they pointed to the expansive breadth of evidence already available to the public and to other key details, including the work of the Jan. 6 House committee; the fact that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, transpired in public view; the lack of classified evidence needed; and the fact that charges were not novel and that many Jan. 6 rioters have now been charged in similar cases. 

CNN first reported the amicus brief.

The 11 experts cited are Michael Luttig, who testified before the Jan. 6 committee, as well as Donald Ayer, Steven Calabresi, John Farmer Jr., Stuart Gerson, Alberto Gonzales, Richard Painter, Jonathan Rose, Paul Rosenzweig and Stanley Twardy Jr.

“For the first time in American history, a former President of the United States stands charged with grave crimes against the United States of America that he allegedly committed while President. The serious offenses alleged in United States v. Donald J. Trump constitute a knife to the heart of America’s democracy and its democratic system of government and governance. The 9 former president’s trial is of transcendent consequence for the Nation,” they wrote. 

“As the eyes of democracies around the world look to America as the continuing proof of democracy’s promise, it is important that this prosecution and the trial of the former president be resolved expeditiously, consistent with Constitution and the rule of law.”