A federal judge scheduled Donald Trump’s classified documents trial for this coming spring, bringing an end to the former President’s efforts to delay the proceedings until after the 2024 election.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith initially pushed for a trial as soon as December of this year, while Trump’s attorneys sought an indefinite delay, citing the effect the trial would have on the presidential election, in which Trump is a frontrunner. On Friday, United States District Judge Aileen Cannon announced a compromise trial date of May 20, 2024, after expressing skepticism of both sides’ arguments.
“By conservative estimates, the amount of discovery in this case is voluminous and likely to increase in the normal course as trial approaches,” Cannon’s decision stated, addressing Smith’s push for a December date. “Even accepting the Government’s contested submission that nothing in this case presents a ‘novel question of fact or law,’ the fact remains that the Court will be faced with extensive pre-trial motion practice on a diverse number of legal and factual issues, all in connection with a 38-count indictment.”
However, the trial will also be held much sooner than the Trump campaign was hoping, close enough to the end of the primary cycle for the presumptive nominee to be determined but not enough for them to have formally received the party nomination.
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Former President Trump stands accused of 37 separate counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and unlawful retention of national defense information. A FBI raid conducted at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence in Palm Beach, FL, last August purported to have found classified materials illegally taken from the White House after Trump’s term ended. Trump maintains that he was well within his rights to take the documents and has pled not guilty to all charges.
If Cannon’s date for the trial remains in place, it would fall immediately after the separate New York trial in which District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump for alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election. Trump also faces an October civil suit brought by the New York Attorney General over “false and misleading financial statements” about the Trump family’s net worth, as well as a defamation suit from writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused the former president of sexual assault. There is also a pending probe into Trump’s alleged election interference in Georgia in 2020, and another investigation into the events of the January 6 Capitol riot, for which Trump expects to be indicted soon.
As the first GOP primary debate approaches, Trump has maintained his innocence in all these cases and claims that the charges are nothing more than a political witch hunt from his political opponents.
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