Trump has indefinitely delayed his Jan. 6 criminal trial. Hundreds of his supporters haven't been so lucky.
Former President Donald Trump's trial on Jan. 6 charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith is indefinitely delayed as his supporters continue to be charged over the Capitol attack.
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump may never face a federal trial in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol, but hundreds of his supporters have already seen life-altering consequences of their actions in support of his election lies Jan. 6.
The former president has done everything he can to delay his criminal trial in Washington, D.C., with his lawyers arguing that he’s immune from prosecution and that it would amount to election interference to make him leave the 2024 campaign trail to mount his own defense.
But the 950 others who have been convicted of crimes related to Jan. 6 in the three years since the attack on the U.S. Capitol haven’t been able to make those arguments to delay their cases. About 500 defendants have been sentenced to periods of incarceration from just a few days behind bars to 22 years in federal prison. Hundreds of more cases continue to make their way through proceedings at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse not far from the Capitol, and online “sedition hunters” have identified hundreds of additional rioters to the FBI who haven’t been arrested. The statute of limitations expires in about 21 months, in January 2026.
Trump was originally set to be on trial before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan right now, in March, on four federal charges related to the Jan. 6 attack. But his delay strategy has paid off, and the case has been on pause since December. The Supreme Court’s decision last month to hear oral arguments in April on Trump’s presidential immunity claims has left the future of his federal election interference trial in doubt.
While Trump may go to trial on unrelated charges in New York next month, it’s not clear that his three other criminal cases — including two related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss — will get to trial before the election. If Trump is re-elected president, he’ll almost certainly either try to fire special counsel Jack Smith or appoint Justice Department officials who would.
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