Decide Aileen M. Cannon has rejected former President Donald Trump’s request to delay his confidential paperwork trial till after the 2024 election.
As a substitute, Cannon introduced on Friday that the trial date for the fees of illegally retaining dozens of categorised paperwork will start on Might 20, 2024.
The choice arrived following what’s been described as a contentious listening to on the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida., the place prosecutors from the particular counsel’s workforce and legal professionals representing Trump clashed over the trial’s timing.
The choose took a center place, pushing the beginning date previous the Justice Division’s request for a trial in December however refusing to postpone it after the 2024 election, as Trump had hoped.
Trump is the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination.
Cannon clarified that the trial wouldn’t be moved to a different location.
Her scheduling order features a collection of hearings all through the rest of this yr and into subsequent yr, with a selected give attention to dealing with the categorised materials central to the case.
Trump’s authorized obligations to attend court docket possible intersect together with his marketing campaign schedule, making the case extremely consequential.
The twice-impeached president made his preliminary court docket look on Tuesday, June 13, the place he pleaded not responsible to 37 prices associated to the alleged mishandling of categorised paperwork.
The costs introduced in opposition to Trump contain the unlawful retention of nationwide protection data and the concealment of paperwork, with potential violations of witness-tampering legal guidelines in the course of the ongoing investigation.
Trump’s shut aide, Walt Nauta, additionally faces prices associated to a conspiracy to hinder the federal investigation.
Nauta has additionally pleaded not responsible.
The previous president can also be dealing with greater than 30 felony prices associated to alleged monetary crimes in New York, and prosecutors in Georgia have seated a grand jury to find out whether or not to indict Trump on prices associated to obstructing the 2020 presidential election.
Jack Smith, the particular counsel, has additionally empaneled a federal grand jury in Washington the place Trump acknowledged receipt this week of a goal letter implying that he could possibly be indicted on prices associated to the January 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.
