A federal judge on Tuesday postponed the criminal classified documents trial of former President Donald Trump, a court filing shows via NBC News.
It has been noted that the trial on charges that Trump retained classified national security records after departing the White House and then hid them from federal authorities was scheduled to start May 20.
However, the new ruling from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has vacated that date and set a new slate of pretrial proceedings, the latest of which is a hearing set for July 22.
It has also come to light that the ruling casts more doubt on whether Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will face trial on federal criminal charges prior to the Nov. 5 election.
The lawyers for Trump have urged Cannon, whom Trump appointed to the federal bench in southern Florida, to set the trial after the election. Cannon went on to write in Tuesday’s court order that it “would be imprudent” to finalize a trial date “at this juncture” when various pretrial issues have yet to be resolved.
Cannon had indicated the pending questions about how classified information will be handled in the high-profile trial of the former president, along with “additional pretrial and trial preparations necessary to present this case to a jury.”
In order to move forward with the trial in May would be “inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider” those issues, she wrote.
“The Court therefore vacates the current May 20, 2024, trial date (and associated calendar call), to be reset by separate order following resolution of the matters before the Court, consistent with Defendants’ right to due process and the public’s interest in the fair and efficient administration of justice,” Cannon wrote.
Trump is currently battling 88 criminal counts in four separate courts as he campaigns to unseat President Joe Biden. He is currently on trial in Manhattan Supreme Court on charges of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. If any of Trump’s other cases will head to trial before Election Day is unclear and after Cannon’s latest ruling, increasingly unlikely.
It has been noted that in addition to the documents case, Trump is charged in federal court in Washington, D.C., with conspiring to overturn his loss to Biden in the 2020 election. He also faces election interference charges in Georgia state court.
