Donald Trump has requested a postponement of his Florida trial until after next year’s presidential election, putting pressure on the Trump-appointed judge in the case.
The former president’s trial on charges of illegally keeping classified documents is scheduled for May 20, 2024 in Florida, but he now wants it delayed until after the November 2024 election.
The indictment accuses Trump of illegally retaining classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida, estate. He faces 40 counts in the classified documents case, including 32 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information; one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice; one count of withholding a document or record; and one count of corruptly concealing a document or record. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies any wrongdoing.
Federal Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, has already been sharply criticized by an appeal court for her ruling that major parts of the government case were inadmissible. Several legal analysts told Newsweek that Cannon is not experienced enough to handle such a major case. However, one said that it would be very difficult for prosecutors to have her removed from the case.
In a motion filed late on Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers urged Cannon to delay the trial until at least mid-November 2024. The judge is now under pressure from both sides of the political fence, having been attacked for her alleged pro-Trump rulings.
Legal submissions by Trump’s lawyers this week claim there have been delays in obtaining the classified records cited in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment.
“Given the current schedule, we cannot understate the prejudice to President Trump arising from his lack of access to these critical materials months after they should have been produced,” this week’s defense motion stated.
“The Special Counsel’s Office has not provided some of the most basic discovery in the case,” it added.
Prosecutors last week accepted that there had been a “slightly longer than anticipated timeframe” in the case, but said that was no reason for an adjournment. They added that, by today, Friday, they will provide much of the remaining outstanding classified evidence.
Five different opinion polls all put Trump far out ahead of all rivals for the Republican nomination, according to a CNN review late last month. The former president now says that he cannot mount an adequate defense to the Florida charges during the election cycle.
In a decision last year, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals criticized Cannon for granting Trump’s request that the government be blocked from using the evidence it obtained from the Republican’s Mar-a-Lago residence to advance its investigation.
The appeal court said Trump had failed to provide adequate information upon which she could base a decision, yet “the district court [Cannon] was undeterred by this lack of information.”
Cannon, who is originally from Colombia, is a registered Republican who was appointed to her federal judgeship by the Trump administration. Amid speculation that Smith may seek to have Cannon recused from the case, legal analysts say that would not be an easy task.
Peter M. Shane, adjunct professor of law at New York University, told Newsweek that it would be very difficult for Smith to reach that standard.
“The standard for forcing recusal if the trial judge declines to bow out is not easy to meet. If Smith moves for recusal and she declines, the appellate court would have to be persuaded that the failure to recuse was an ‘abuse of discretion,'” Shane said.
“Smith might well want to wait and see how Cannon handles some of the sensitive issues regarding the handling of classified documents. If her resolution of those questions looks like deliberate slow-walking or obstructionism, that might be the time to raise the question whether her ‘impartiality might reasonably be questioned.'”
On the question of a Trump postponement, Shane said he is “not aware of any reason why a criminal trial should be delayed because a defendant is running for president.” If that was the case, he added, anyone facing a criminal trial could run for election to avoid prosecution.
“After all, to be a candidate in a party primary typically requires only a filing fee. Faced with the near-term prospect of a daunting prosecution, why not pay a few hundred bucks to make oneself a candidate in a party primary for president?” Shane said.