Assuming Donald Trump clinches the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, it would be unfair for any court dates associated with the former president’s pending criminal charges to “compromise [his] ability to have a robust campaign schedule”, the Democratic US congressman Ro Khanna has said.
Khanna’s remarks on Tuesday – in an interview with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt – might be surprising to some, given his credentials as a leading progressive voice in the House. Khanna was the former co-chairperson of the liberal US senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination that Joe Biden ultimately secured.
Nonetheless, while Khanna made clear that he believed Trump should have to answer the various charges against him, the Californian said the timing of exactly when that happens is of the utmost importance.
“My instinct on all of this is they’re not going to have trials in the middle of something that’s going to compromise a candidate’s ability to have a fair fight,” Khanna said. “I just don’t see that happening in our country.”
He continued: “You can’t just say OK, because someone was president or someone is a candidate, that you’re above the law. Everyone is under the law, and that allegations, the evidence needs to be pursued. But what we’re discussing is the timing.
“And I do think we need to make sure that in the timing, if Trump does emerge as the Republican nominee, that it does not compromise the ability to have a robust campaign schedule. And I imagine that the courts will take that into consider if he is the nominee.”
Khanna’s comments come as Trump grapples with 91 criminal charges contained in four separate indictments related to subversion of the 2020 election which he lost to Biden, retention of classified information once he left the Oval Office and hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and claims that he is being politically persecuted. Trials have been scheduled for next year, but it is not uncommon for such proceedings to be delayed – sometimes significantly.
In his conversation with Hewitt, Khanna alluded to the possibility of trial delays, which often result from logistical complications that are commonplace even when the defendant is much less well-known than an ex-president.
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“I’m not sure that that’s going to be the actual date at the end of the day,” Khanna said when Hewitt mentioned that one of the cases against Trump was set for trial on 4 March 2024, when many states have scheduled presidential primary voting. “There’s an ability to move it. I mean, let’s see what happens.”
Khanna also brought up the possibility that one of the other candidates vying for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination ends up swiping it from Trump, even though polling shows that he holds a commanding lead in the contest.
“You know, he may not be the nominee,” said Khanna, who has been in Congress since 2017. “I mean, that’s still – that has to be determined.”
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
