WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Florida set May 20, 2024, as the start date for former President Donald Trump’s trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents and obstructing justice — throwing a courtroom drama right into the middle of the presidential campaign.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon turned aside prosecutors’ attempt to start the trial on Dec. 11, writing Friday that “the interests of justice served by this continuance outweigh the best interest of the public and Defendants in a speedy trial.”
Trump, 77, had lobbied the court to delay the trial indefinitely, with his lawyers arguing that he would be denied a fair trial if it occurred before election Day.
But prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith argued that the trial should be scheduled, noting in a letter to Cannon last week that “there is no basis in law or fact for proceeding in such an indeterminate and open-ended fashion, and the defendants provide none.”
“The court rejects defendants’ request to withhold setting of a schedule now; the court deems it necessary to manage this proceeding through important stages of discovery … and trial, and does not see a sufficient basis on this record to postpone the entry of a scheduling order,” Cannon wrote Friday.
In setting a trial date almost exactly 10 months in advance, Cannon cited the massive amount of material attorneys from both sides must sift through before the case heads to a jury.
“By conservative estimates, the amount of discovery, in this case, is voluminous and likely to
increase in the normal course as trial approaches,” she wrote, adding that the evidence includes “more than 1.1 million pages of non-classified discovery produced thus far, at least nine months of camera footage, at least 1,545 pages of classified discovery ready to be produced, plus additional content from electronic devices and other sources yet to be turned over.”
Trump remains the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president and has been since launching his campaign last fall.
The May trial date comes at the tail end of the GOP primary calendar and fewer than two months before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where the party will select its official nominee for the presidency.
SOURCE: New york post
