Key Dates On Trump s Overlapping Legal And Political Calendars

Feb 20 (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump faces a crowded calendar this year as he seeks the Republican nomination in the U.S. election while defending himself in four criminal trials.

Here are key dates in Trump's legal and political schedule:

FEB. 24 South Carolina holds its Republican presidential primary. Opinion polls show Trump's sole rival Nikki Haley trailing in this state, even though she served as its governor for six years. Trump has won the first four nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands by wide margins.

MARCH 5

"Super Tuesday," when 15 states and one U.S. territory hold Republican primaries or caucuses. Trump could effectively wrap up the nomination on this date, if he has not done so already.

MARCH 25 Start of a New York state criminal trial, in which Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star before the 2016 presidential election. This trial is expected to last until early May.

Trump could potentially stand trial in three other separate criminal cases before the November election as well, though it is not clear at this point when two of them might start. A federal trial in Washington, in which Trump is charged with illegally trying to reverse his 2020 election loss, has been postponed while an appeals court weighs Trump's claim that he can't be prosecuted for actions he took as president. A trial date also is not set at this point for a racketeering case in Georgia that charges Trump and 14 co-defendants under state law with trying to overturn his 2020 defeat in that state. The state judge overseeing that case is currently weighing whether to dismiss Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis, who has admitted to having an affair with a lawyer she supervises in the case.

Willis has proposed an August start date and has said the trial would last until 2025. Four defendants in the wide-ranging case have pleaded guilty.

MAY 20 Scheduled start of a federal criminal trial in Miami, in which Trump is charged with unlawfully keeping classified government documents after leaving office and lying to officials who sought to recover them.

JUNE 4

The final Republican presidential primaries take place.

JULY 15-18

Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the party formally chooses its candidate.

NOV. 5

Election Day (Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and link palsu Lisa Shumaker)