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Politics
Gabriel J. Chin, Edward L. Barrett Jr. Chair & Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, University of California, Davis

Trump's trial will soon be underway in Florida – here's why prosecutors had little choice in selecting any other courthouse location

Police walk around the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. federal courthouse in Miami before Donald Trump's arraignment on June 12, 2023. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Special Counsel Jack Smith may have wished he could indict and try former president Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., where Trump is disliked, rather than in southern Florida, where Trump is popular.

But based on my experience as a scholar of criminal law and procedure, as well as my time practicing criminal law, I believe that under the Constitution – and under the circumstances – Smith had little choice but to prosecute Trump in Florida.

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