A federal court in Florida on Friday reviewed the schedule for the trial of former US President Donald Trump for his potentially casual handling of classified documents, scheduled to begin May 20, which will likely be postponed for several months.
Targeted by four separate criminal proceedings, the big favorite in the Republican primaries for the November presidential election is seeking through his multiple appeals to go to trial as late as possible, in any case after the vote.
Furthermore, in Georgia, another state in the southeast of the country, where Donald Trump and several of his co-defendants prosecuted for illegal attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election are demanding the dismissal of the prosecutor, a final hearing is held before Judge Scott McAfee.
After hearing from both sides, the judge indicated his intention to issue a decision within the next two weeks.
If he concluded that there was a conflict of interest justifying a withdrawal from prosecutor Fani Willis due to her intimate relationship with an investigator she hired in this case, this would further postpone the holding of this trial, for which no date is given. has been fixed.
In Florida, where he is being prosecuted with two of his assistants for having improperly kept confidential documents, Donald Trump attended the hearing on Friday, behind closed doors but followed by a pool of media, chaired by Judge Aileen Cannon.
According to these media, the judge described as “unrealistic” certain deadlines planned by the team of special prosecutor Jack Smith, in charge of investigating this case, who proposed July 8 as the new start date for the trial.
She indicated that she wanted a timetable sufficiently spaced out to allow “flexibility”, in particular because of the possibility of overlap with other criminal proceedings against the ex-president.
Immunity
Donald Trump’s lawyers argue that “a fair trial cannot be held until after the 2024 presidential election.”
They nevertheless mentioned the date of August 12 for their client and one of his co-defendants, but suggested to the court to wait until the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled on the criminal immunity claimed by their client as a former -president.
The highest court in the country took up this unprecedented question of the criminal immunity of a former president on Wednesday, further postponing the holding of his federal trial for illegal attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election, a file also investigated by Jack Smith.
This trial, which should have opened on March 4, is now postponed until the Supreme Court rules.
If he were elected again, Donald Trump could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order an end to federal proceedings against him.
He is being prosecuted in Florida for compromising national security by keeping classified documents after his departure from the White House in January 2021, including military plans or information on nuclear weapons, in his private residence in this state, at instead of handing them over to the National Archives as required by law.
Another law, on espionage, prohibits keeping state secrets in unauthorized and unsecured places.
Targeted by a total of 41 counts, he is also accused of attempting to destroy evidence in this case.