A federal judge on Tuesday scheduled a hearing for Friday on prosecutors’ request for a protective order in the criminal election case against former US President Donald Trump, CNBC reports.
Judge Tanya Chutkan set the hearing after Trump’s lawyers told her they wanted to push the session into early next week, despite Chutkan having asked both sides to offer her dates on or before Friday.
Prosecutors from the office of special counsel Jack Smith had told the judge they were available on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday for the hearing in US District Court in Washington, D.C.
The session will deal with Smith’s request that Chutkan bar Trump from publicly revealing some evidence collected during the criminal investigation.
Trump, who will not attend the hearing, was indicted last week with four felonies related to efforts overturn the results of the 2020 election: A conspiracy to defraud the United States "by using dishonesty, fraud and deceit to obstruct the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election"; a conspiracy to impede the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified; a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have that vote counted; obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct and impede, the certification of the electoral vote.
The former President appeared at Washington’s federal courthouse last Thursday, where he pleaded not guilty.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers and Smith’s prosecutors in a joint notice in court to the judge detailed their availability for the hearing.
The notice said that Trump wants both of his lawyers, John Lauro and Todd Blanche, to be present for the hearing.
“Todd Blanche is not available on Thursday, since he must appear for a court proceeding in the prosecution brought against the same defendant, President Trump, by the Special Counsel” in federal court for the Southern District of Florida, the filing said, according to CNBC.
“Mr. Lauro is available on Thursday, with a preference for an afternoon setting,” the filing said.
“However, since we lost Friday as an option, we would respectfully request a setting on Monday (after 12:00 p.m.) or Tuesday (all day) to allow for both Mr. Blanche and Mr. Lauro to be present.”
It was not stated in the notice, or clear from other sources, why Friday was not “an option” for Trump’s lawyers, or why they could not meet Wednesday.
Lauro said on Sunday that Trump would not accept a plea deal in connection to the federal Jan. 6 case.
Asked if there was “any condition” under which Trump would accept a plea deal on the latest charges brought against him, Lauro replied there was no condition where Trump would.
When asked if he planned to file a motion to dismiss the case, Lauro said he “absolutely” will, but did not answer when he would file that.