‘Good luck with that’: Legal Twitter mocks Trump’s request to delay his trial to 2026

On Thursday, jokes erupted online over reports that former President Donald Trump had requested an April 2026 hearing date in his federal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Many legal experts poked fun at the quadruple defendant for the “absurd” suggestion.

The motion to U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan was filed Thursday night and has a long time difference from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s proposal to set the January 2024 hearing date. Accordingly CNNThe former President’s legal team rejected Smith’s proposal, arguing that Smith “seeks a faster trial than most undocumented offenses and requires only four months from discovery to jury selection.”

Trump’s lawyers also argued the submission that Smith’s requested timeline would be at odds with her client’s other ongoing criminal cases; and that by proposing a January date, the government is attempting to “deny President Trump and his attorneys a fair opportunity to prepare for the trial,” citing in part to 11.5. obtains millions of pages of documents presented to them by the Department of Justice.

“Trump is not trying to invoke the election by demanding a hearing date of 2026. He knows Chutkan took that off the table,” said former US Attorney Harry Litman wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Instead,” Litman said, “Trump argues 1) many discoveries; 2) complicated cast; 3) some secret materials. Then he sets a comically leisurely schedule. For example, basically the whole of 2025 will be taken up with three discovery conferences.”

In the filing, Trump’s legal team offers what they call a “more reasonable timeline” that “complies with the time the government has spent investigating the case.” According to their proposed schedule, three initial discovery conferences and motion hearings would take place between December 4 and the week of August 5, 2024, and four more would take place between December 2, 2024 and the week of December 1. 2025. The schedule also calls for the judge to schedule the motion hearing for the week of March 2, 2026 and the pre-trial conference for the week of March 23, 2026.

“Trump’s attorney’s statement that they must have three years to review documents page by page is not how a civil or criminal attorney reviews documents,” said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann tweeted. “These are all computer search terms. Otherwise, no case would ever be tried.”

Other legal experts reacted in disbelief to the former president’s proposed trial date.

Neal Katyal, law professor at Georgetown University, said on X“I’ll eat my hat if Judge Chutkan agrees to Trump starting this trial in 2026.”

“Absurd,” the former assistant attorney general continued. “He’s just scared of going to court. Not more.”

Katyal, meanwhile, echoed those sentiments an appearance on MSNBC‘s The ReidOut on Thursday night, saying host Joy Reid that the term “ridiculous” gave Trump’s wish “so much credit.”

“I don’t really have any adjectives in my vocabulary — at least not words I can say on TV,” he said of how he would describe the proposal, adding, “Never in my 20+ years as a lawyer have I.” done.” I’ve seen something like a request, and I’ll eat my hat if Judge Chutkan accepts it, because justice delayed is justice denied.

Katyal continued to reflect on what the proposed timeline reveals about Trump’s assessment of the merits of the administration’s case against him, arguing that an “innocent” person accused of what the former president is accused of wants the trial “to be immediately” takes place to clear their name.

“But not this guy. This guy is scared of going to court,” Katyal surmised of Trump. “Outside the courtroom he babbles as much as he likes, but he’s terrified of actually being in a courtroom and when he’s in one he stays calm.”

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“To me, this is just another indication of his own guilt,” he concluded, adding, “I think it tells us a lot about his own state of mind.”

National Security Attorney Bradley Moss responded to the request with a GIF captioned “They’re not serious people,” before questioning the four to six weeks Trump and the administration predicted for his defense to be presented at the trial.

“I’m going to invest a lot of money in Trump’s defense and it will take me a day at most. Assuming he even bothers to put one up,” he said tweeted.

“That’s actually funny. 2026. Good luck with that,” former US Attorney Joyce Vance said joked.

“Which comes first: Professor Kreis gets engaged or Donald Trump’s proposed trial dates?” Anthony Kreis, professor of law at the State of Georgia addedmakes fun of himself.

Conservative attorney George Conway responded by rewording Trump’s motion into a knock-knock joke.

“‘Knock Knock.’

“‘Who ‘s there?’

“‘April.’

“‘April who?’

“‘April 2026.’

“{endless hysterical laughter}.”