FACTBOX-Key dates on Trump's overlapping legal and political calendars

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.

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. 15 A Georgia judge will hold a hearing to consider Trump's effort to remove the prosecutor from a racketeering case that charges him and 14 co-defendants with illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Trump and two of his co-defendants argue that Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis has benefitted financially from a romantic relationship with one of the lawyers she hired to work on the case. Willis has admitted to the relationship but denies that it has tainted the prosecution. Willis has proposed an Aug. 5 start for the trial and has said it could last into 2025. Four defendants in the wide-ranging case have pleaded guilty.

FEB. 24 South Carolina holds its Republican presidential primary. Opinion polls show his sole rival Nikki Haley trailing Trump 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 Scheduled 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 is likely to be the first of Trump's four criminal trials, though the timeline for all of them could change. A federal criminal trial in Washington, in which Trump is charged with illegally trying to reverse his 2020 election loss, had been scheduled for early March, but has been postponed while an appeals court weighs Trump's claim that he can't be prosecuted for actions he took as president.

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