Earlier this month, I wrote that starting Donald Trump’s classified documents trial in December, as special counsel Jack Smith wants, is “far from guaranteed.”
Now, Tuesday’s hearing in Florida before Judge Aileen Cannon suggests any possibility of such a date may have officially vanished — but how far into 2024 it may have vanished is up in the air.
That’s because Cannon reportedly sounded hesitant to grant the Department of Justice’s request to start the trial this year, yet she also seemed skeptical of Trump’s attempt to put the trial off until after the 2024 election.
On the other hand, Judge Cannon didn’t seem to have much sympathy for the idea that Trump can’t get a fair trial while he’s running for president. https://t.co/uW2yCEifIM
— Ken Dilanian (@DilanianMSNBC) July 18, 2023
So the Trump-appointed judge may opt for what I previously referred to as a middle ground possibility of a spring or summer 2024 start date. While Cannon didn’t specify her thinking, she indicated she would do so soon.
Her decision could hinge partly on how complex she views the case that charges Trump with violating the Espionage Act and other criminal statutes, for allegedly unlawfully retaining classified documents and trying to cover up his doing so. He has pleaded not guilty, as has his co-defendant, Walt Nauta. Of course, the classified documents case may not be Trump’s only federal indictment for long. The former president himself broke the news Tuesday that he received a target letter in Smith’s other probe, into 2020 election interference. We may soon learn from Cannon how close to the next election, whose result could scuttle any federal cases Trump has pending, sets his latest trial date.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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