A federal judge denied Donald Trump’s latest effort to delay a May 20 trial on charges he mishandled secret records until after the 2024 election, but said she would revisit the issue early next year.
District Judge Aileen Cannon on Friday set a hearing for March 1 to reconsider the trial schedule in order to allow more time for Trump and his codefendants to review evidence and pursue legal challenges to the indictment, and for both sides to litigate whether prosecutors can withhold classified information from the defense. Trump’s lawyers had claimed that evidence hold-ups made the existing calendar unworkable. Prosecutors disagreed.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Hialeah, Fla., on Wednesday. Lynne Sladky/Associated Press
The judge wrote in an order that given the “evolving complexities” of the case – especially the large amount of classified evidence – Trump and his codefendants Waltine “Walt” Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira were entitled to more time to prepare. But Cannon wrote that it was “premature” to decide if a later trial date was necessary.
Cannon also gave weight to Trump’s lawyers’ concerns about deadlines in the Florida prosecution overlapping with pretrial calendars in other criminal cases he faces. The new schedule was designed to balance the defendants’ due process rights “against the public’s right to a speedy trial,” she wrote.
A spokesperson for Special Counsel John “Jack” Smith declined to comment.
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement that they were looking forward to the March scheduling conference.
“It is clearly in the best interest of justice for President Trump to have adequate time to prepare and file motions … ,” Cheung said.
Trump has repeatedly pressed for longer timelines to deal with his numerous legal entanglements as he mounts a third campaign for the White House. After his June indictment in Florida in the classified documents case, Cannon rejected his pitch that she not set any trial date or at least schedule it after the election.
The Fort Pierce-based judge, who was nominated by Trump, at the time had also denied a request by Smith’s office for a December trial, calling it “atypically accelerated.”
Cannon’s latest order came as Trump’s lawyers mount a new effort to halt a separate federal criminal case charging him with conspiring to obstruct the 2020 presidential election. The trial in Washington is set to begin March 4. On Nov. 1, defense attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to put all of the proceedings on hold while they fight with prosecutors over whether Trump is entitled to total immunity against the indictment.
Ahead of Cannon’s ruling on the Florida schedule, Smith’s office alerted the judge in a Nov. 2 filing about the latest action in Washington. Prosecutors argued that it was disingenuous for Trump’s team to argue for a later trial in Florida because of schedule conflicts in Washington when they were simultaneously pushing to delay that case too. They urged Cannon to not allow herself “to be manipulated in this fashion.”
Trump is currently on trial in New York in a civil fraud case. He’s due for trial in Manhattan again in late March on charges that he falsified business records, though that schedule could change given the overlap with the Washington case. He’s facing a fourth criminal indictment in Georgia on state charges of election interference, but no trial is set yet. Four of his codefendants have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
In Florida, Trump’s lawyers argued that their trial preparation was hamstrung by the government’s delays in producing all of the unclassified evidence and making sure the defense could access classified material that has to stay in a secure facility.
Prosecutors countered in court papers that as of early October, they had turned over nearly all of the unclassified evidence. They wrote that it was possible they would have additional material to produce in the coming months – if they interviewed more witnesses or if Trump’s lawyers asked for more categories of information, for instance – but argued that wasn’t grounds to delay the trial.
Smith’s office also accused Trump’s lawyers of presenting a “misleading” picture when it came to the classified evidence. Prosecutors told Cannon that most of that material already had been available for Trump and his lawyers to review – the “full scope” was available as of Oct. 17, according to the Friday order – and that access issues involving a “tiny” collection of particularly sensitive documents were close to a resolution.
The case is United States v. Trump, 9:23-cr-80101, US District Court, Southern District of Florida (West Palm Beach).
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