As previously posted, Donald Trump wanted his Florida trial regarding alleged mishandling of national security information delayed until after the 2024 election, and the DOJ pressed for a December 11, 2023, trial date.
Trump argued that there was too much to do before trial making December 11 not feasible, and further argued that he could not get a fair trial during a presidential campaign.
The court held a combined Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) and trial scheduling conference today. We don’t have a transcript and it was not broadcast, so we only have media accounts to go on. CNN indicates the judge was skeptical of a December trial:
US District Judge Aileen Cannon signaled she is likely to push back the start of a trial in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case beyond the mid-December date proposed by federal prosecutors – but appeared deeply skeptical of arguments from Donald Trump’s lawyers that he couldn’t get a fair trial while running for president.Special counsel Jack Smith’s team and lawyers for Trump appeared Tuesday for the first time in front of Cannon, who will preside over the criminal case Smith has brought against the former president.During the hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida, Cannon said a proposal from federal prosecutors that the trial of Trump and his aide be held in mid-December was “a bit rushed.” She told the prosecutors that their timeline was “compressed” and said that cases like this take more time.Cannon did not decide on a trial date but said she plans to “promptly” issue an order on the matter.
The New York Times further reports:
For nearly two hours in Federal District Court in Fort Pierce, Fla., Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, peppered prosecutors and the former president’s lawyers with questions that suggested she was in command of her courtroom and well-versed in the facts of the case….At one point, Judge Cannon directly asked one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Christopher Kise, if he wanted to put off the trial until after the election. When Mr. Kise said he did, Judge Cannon told him that she wanted to focus on near-term issues like the amount of discovery evidence the defense had to review and the types of motions the lawyers planned to file.As the hearing came to end, Todd Blanche, another one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, asked Judge Cannon if the defense could return to court in November and reassess the trial schedule then. Appearing to pick up on the judge’s desire to create what she called “a road map” for the case, Mr. Blanche said that if a trial date absolutely had to be chosen, he would ask for one in mid-November 2024, after the election.
I had thought the judge would set December 11 as a tentative date, while making clear that it could be pushed back depending on the progress of the case. I still think she may do that.
But one thing is clear, contrary to widespread rumors spread by the usual suspects, there is no indication that the prosecution was delaying trial because its case was imploding. The evidence will be what it will be, regardless of when the trial takes place.
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