Jeffrey Epstein is likely to face trial in June 2020, a judge in New York has ruled – dismaying Epstein’s lawyers, who pleaded for more time to go through “a million pages” of evidence against their client.

The disgraced financier, 66, is facing charges of sex trafficking of minors, which carry a 45 year sentence.

Prosecutors want the trial to begin as soon as possible, but Martin Weinberg, Epstein’s lawyer, objected to starting the trial before September 2020.

“We need time to review a million pages of discovery,” he said, during a scheduling hearing on Wednesday.

Judge Richard Berman set the tentative date for trial after Alison Moe, prosecuting, said they were seeking a trial as “swiftly as possible.”

She added: “We don’t think any delay in this is in the public interest.”

Epstein’s trial is expected to last four to six weeks, and the defence will have all the prosecution’s evidence against him by October 31, she said.

Epstein was in court on Wednesday, bearing no apparent injury after he was found unconscious in his cell with neck injuries on July 24.

The day before the incident, the multimillionaire had appealed against the decision to deny him bail. He had also, on July 22, been served with court papers relating to accusations made by Jennifer Araoz that he raped her in 2002, when she was 15.

Jail sources told The New York Post they initially believed it was a suicide attempt, but are now focusing their attention on his cellmate, a former policeman facing charges of murdering four people.

Epstein did not speak during Wednesday’s hearing.

Later on Wednesday it emerged that Epstein and President Donald Trump had once battled for the same prized Palm Beach ocean-front estate, Maison de L’Amitie. The two fought over the property at auction in 2004, with Mr Trump eventually outbidding Epstein and paying $41 million.

Mr Trump sold the property to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev in 2008 for $95 million.

Mr Rybolovlev, in turn, sold the estate in July this year – having knocked the mansion down and divided the property into three lots, which went for $108 million.

Epstein bought into the Palm Beach scene in 1990, spending $2.5 million on a waterfront mansion. He also owns a ranch in New Mexico, an apartment in Paris, and a private island in the Caribbean.

The Brooklyn-born businessman had hoped to await his trial at his $77 million Manhattan mansion – a place where friends such as Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Mr Trump would gather.

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His former friends have all sought to distance themselves from Epstein since his July 6 arrest.

Photographs and videos show Epstein and Mr Trump posing together at the mansion in 1992, 1997 and 2000. The two were also pictured together, with model Ingrid Seynhaeve, in 1997 at a Victoria’s Secret party in New York City.

Epstein’s New York-based brother, Mark, told The Washington Post that Mr Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet “numerous times”.

“They were good friends,” he said. “I know Trump is trying to distance himself, but they were.”