In a court-filed response in opposition to the federal government’s Jan. 6 trial calendar on Thursday, former President Donald Trump and his team requested that the trial be pushed over two years from the top of 2024 to April 2026.
“President Donald J. Trump, through counsel, submits this response in opposition to the government’s proposed trial calendar, Doc. 23, and respectfully requests the Court place this case on the April 2026 trial calendar,” the document read. And in short order, the media jumped on the news as a “laughable” attempt to delay the proceedings ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
For Neal Katyal, a law professor at Georgetown University and former lawyer in the Obama administration, he sees the effort as a calculated move that indicates Trump’s “own consciousness of guilt… I think that it tells us about his own state of mind,” he told Joy Reid on Thursday evening’s “The ReidOut” on MSNBC.
Reid began the segment by asking Katyal if the difference between Trump’s suggested date and the government’s is “in any way a reasonable difference.”
“I’ve never in my 20-plus years of practicing law seen a request anything like that. And I’ll eat my hat if Judge Chutkan accepts it,” Katyal skewered. “Because look, justice delayed is justice denied. And to me, the key thing about this episode, Joy, is what does this filing, April 2026, tell us about Donald Trump’s view of the merits of the case against him?”
The legal expert then pondered aloud how he or Reid herself may respond if such an accusation was levied upon them.
“We’re accused of launching a coup and subverting democracy and launching Jan. 6, you’d want this trial right away, you’d want to clear your name,” he said.
“Yesterday!” Reid echoed.
“But no, this guy is scared of going to trial. He talks all the bluster he wants outside the courtroom, but he is terrified of actually being in the courtroom, and when he is in one, he clams up. So to me, this is just further indicia of his own consciousness of guilt. He’s of course entitled to make these filings. There’s no problem with that in terms of legally. But I think that it tells us about his own state of mind.”
Reid then put a button on the conversation by making up a whole new month:
“Let’s have the trial in the month of Nevernty,” she joked.
Watch the full “The ReidOut” segment in the video above.
