‘I Thought It Was a Typo’: CNN Legal Analyst Reacts to Trump’s Motion Seeking 2026 Trial Start
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig expressed shock over former President Donald Trump’s motion this week to start his election interference trial in federal court in April 2026, remarking that he “thought it was a typo” when he first saw it.
On CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins on Thursday, Honig said, “Kaitlan, when I first saw this date, 2026, honestly I thought it was a typo. I said, they can’t really mean 2026. I don’t think the judge is going to take this seriously at all. I think the judge is going to see it as a wild overreach.”
He added, however:
That said, Donald Trump does, in his brief, make a compelling argument that DOJ’s request that we start four months from now in January is also wildly unrealistic. As you said, Trump points out there’s 11 million documents here. He almost physically can’t go through that in enough time. He also makes an interesting point that the average federal conspiracy case, run-of-the-mill, takes about two years to get to trial, and in fact, some of the people who stormed the Capitol, fairly straightforward cases, were given two or so years up until trial.
Honig noted:
On the one hand, there’s a need to try Donald Trump quickly, I think there’s a public interest, and on the other hand, we can’t forget he does have the 6th Amendment right to fully prepare his defense. And he doesn’t have to just read those nearly 100,000 documents per day, he has to analyze them, he has the right to investigate and mount his own defense, he has the right to bring motions. I don’t see any earthly way he can get that done by Jack Smith’s proposed date of January 2024 and I also don’t see why we need to push this out until three years from now.
MSNBC also expressed shock over Trump’s requested trial date on Thursday, airing the chyron, “Trump requests April 2026 trial date (not a typo).”
Watch above via CNN.
