12.8 million documents of discovery shared in Trump Jan. 6 case, prosecutors say

In the federal case probing former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, prosecutors have turned over 12.8 million documents to the former president’s legal team as part of discovery, prosecutors said Monday. 

Trump faces four criminal charges in Washington, D.C., tied to his actions after losing the 2020 election, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. 

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan set a trial date of March 4 in the case — a date strongly objected to by Trump’s legal team, which argued that it would take substantially more time than that to get familiar with discovery and ensure the former president is “adequately represented.”

A quarter of the 12.8 million documents are associated with Trump’s campaign or political action committees that have supported it, according to prosecutor Molly Gaston. 

Transcripts of grand jury testimony and accompanying exhibits make up 5 million of the documents, and 3 million documents originated from the Secret Service, she said.

But Trump has had “access functionally” to about two-thirds of the total documents, Gaston said. Some 7.8 million documents are from “entities associated with the defendant,” from National Archives documents to open-source material like tweets, Truth Social posts or information made public by the House Jan. 6 committee that investigated the Capitol attack.

The government also produced 47,000 “key documents” to the defense, including an annotated indictment Gaston said is a “road map” to the government’s case.

The government originally proposed a trial date of Jan. 2 in the D.C. case, while defense attorneys suggested an April 2026 date.

Trump attorney John Lauro said going to trial on the government’s timeline would be a “violation of the oath to do justice” due to the “avalanche of information” turned over in discovery. Briefs filed by Trump’s legal team ahead of the hearing balked at the total pages, creating a graphic that stacked them next to monuments and suggesting they would take years to read.

Prosecutors countered that Trump’s public comments about the case makes the need to quickly proceed to trial more necessary. 

“He has publicly disparaged witnesses, he has attacked the court and citizens of the District of Columbia which is our jury pool,” Gaston said, adding that Trump is “accused of historic crimes: attempting to overturn the presidential election disenfranchise millions of Americans and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.”

Chutkan said she doesn’t “doubt for a minute” that Trump’s team has worked diligently on his case, but said his attorneys have a “very different estimate” of the time needed to prepare for trial. 

After Chutkan set the March 4 date – following a tense debate over the time Trump’s team would need time to review evidence – Lauro said the March 4 date is “inconsistent with President Trump’s right to due process.”

“Mr. Trump is entitled to a defense that is reasonably prepared; it would be a miscarriage of justice if they don’t get that kind of defense,” he said. 

“And they’re going to get it,” Chutkan replied. “I intend to ensure he gets it.”

Updated 1:45 p.m.