Trump’s classified docs case: Judge does not make decision on trial date
- Trump wants classified docs case dismissed or delayed until after election
- Special counsel Jack Smith asked judge that the trial begin in July
- District Judge Aileen Cannon did not make ruling over trial date Friday
Testing widget old system
FORT PIERCE, Fla. (NewsNation) — The judge in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump did not make an official ruling Friday over whether to change the date of his trial.
Trump was in federal court as he tries to get the Florida trial, currently scheduled to begin May 20, delayed or dismissed.
He faces 40 felony counts that accuse him of willfully retaining, after he left the White House, dozens of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and then rebuffing government demands to give them back.
Judge Aileen Cannon declined Trump’s request to delay the trial back in November when she initially announced Friday’s hearing.
Meanwhile, special counsel Jack Smith filed a request asking the judge that the trial begin in July. Trump’s legal team in their own filings complained again to Cannon that Trump can’t be tried fairly until after the November election but ultimately proposed an Aug. 12 start date.
Trump’s lawyers are pushing to dismiss the charges outright based on his claim of presidential immunity, saying his decision to bring the documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate occurred while he was president.
It’s an argument the U.S. Supreme Court said Wednesday it would consider in Trump’s other federal election interference case.
Trump is trying to argue that the prosecution against him is flawed and that the charges conflict with another law on the use of “presidential records.”
“I am covered by the very important Presidential Records Act, and therefore, I did absolutely nothing wrong. Nothing wrong,” Trump said a few weeks ago.
Prosecutors, on the other hand, have stressed the scope of criminal conduct they expect to prove at trial, saying in one brief that “there has never been a case in American history in which a former official has engaged in conduct remotely similar to Trump’s.”
Allegations against the previous commander-in-chief include that Trump held onto some of the nation’s most sensitive documents after leaving office and urged his lawyer to hide records and lie to the FBI by saying he no longer was in possession of them. Authorities also say he enlisted staff to delete surveillance footage that would show boxes of records being moved around the property.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
