The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents has scheduled his trial to start in late May of next year, rejecting claims by the former president’s attorneys that a fair trial could only be held after the 2024 election, as well as the Justice Department’s request to start in December.
U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon heard arguments from both sides on July 18 and said she would issue her decision promptly. Today, she set the case for jury trial in the Fort Pierce Division of the U.S. District Court in Southern Florida during the two-week period that begins May 20, 2024.
Trump is the early front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, so the looming trial will likely resonate across the campaign trail. By late May, the bulk of the Republican primary contests will be completed – meaning the GOP nomination could be set, with the general election still more than five months away.
Postponing the proceedings until after the election, on the other hand, would have raised the possibility that if Trump or another Republican won, they could try to push the Justice Department to drop the prosecution once in office.
Trump and a longtime aide, Waltine “Walt” Nauta, were charged last month in a 38-count indictment that accused the former president of improperly retaining 31 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence and private club. Prosecutors alleged that Trump enlisted Nauta to help him keep some highly classified materials in spite of the government’s efforts to have them returned.
Both men pleaded not guilty during separate court appearances in Miami. Trump has assailed this case and other investigations scrutinizing him as politically motivated.
The case was randomly assigned to Cannon, who Trump appointed to the bench in 2020. Cannon drew intense scrutiny for a controversial ruling last year – sought by Trump – allowing an outside review of the documents the FBI seized from his Florida residence. An appeals court panel unanimously ruled she was wrong.
During the hearing earlier this week, Trump’s team argued that the amount of government evidence they needed to review during the discovery process was immense and required more time than the government’s requested December trial date would allow.
Federal prosecutors disagreed.
Cannon wrote in her order Friday that the discovery material is “exceedingly voluminous and will require substantial time to review and digest.”
Trump’s attorneys also said that in addition to a busy campaign schedule, Trump will be entangled in other court cases in the near future. Trump is facing criminal charges in Manhattan, with a trial there set to take place in March 2024, as well as civil lawsuits set to go to trial in New York this fall and early next year.
And more criminal charges are possible: Trump is a focus of separate investigations related to efforts by him and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss, one conducted by the Atlanta-area district attorney and another being carried out by federal investigators. The Atlanta-area case is expected to result in a charging decision in August. Separately, Trump announced on social media Tuesday that his lawyers had received a letter from the Justice Department saying he could be charged in the federal investigation.
During the hearing on July 18, Cannon did not seem sold on at least some of the Trump team’s arguments, including their contention that the intense level of attention on him would abate after the 2024 election. She suggested that the Trump side’s open-ended request to push things until after the election was not tenable.
“We need to set a schedule,” she told the former president’s lawyers during the hearing.
Overseeing the documents trial puts Cannon in an extraordinary spotlight, and her every move is likely to be dissected as observers watch to see if she appears to be favoring either side. In her role, Cannon can have a significant impact on the case, including by ruling on what evidence can be included and deciding on any potential motions challenging the charges.
The case will be tried under the rules of the Classified Information Procedures Act, or CIPA – a law that spells out pretrial steps that must be taken to decide what classified information will be used in court and how. Those steps could delay the trial because they can result in more pre-trial motions and hearings than a typical case.
Trump’s attorneys said that because this was a CIPA case it should be considered “complex” – a designation that could allow for more time before the trial starts. The government countered that there are only two defendants and the legal issues at the crux of the case are not novel.
Cannon didn’t say Friday whether she thought the case was “complex,” but she seemed to be sympathetic to the arguments made by Trump’s attorneys.
“This is a CIPA case, which although on its own may not be a fact warranting designation of this case as complex under the Speedy Trial Act, strongly counsels in that direction here given the substantial quantities of classified discovery, anticipated CIPA briefing and the need for Defendants and the Court to adequately review the classified discovery under appropriate safeguards and following resolution of pending logistics,” Cannon wrote.
(c) 2023, The Washington Post · Mark Berman, Perry Stein
