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The federal judge presiding over the criminal case surrounding Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents has postponed the Florida trial indefinitely, citing the need for “adequate preparation.”
In a filing Tuesday afternoon, Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, canceled the tentative May 20 trial date for the case in Miami and suggested she would not decide on a new date for some time.
The decision means Trump’s current “hush money” trial in Manhattan will most likely be the only one the presumptive Republican nominee will face before November’s presidential election.
In announcing her decision, Cannon said there were “countless and interrelated” pre-trial issues that needed to be resolved and that it would be “imprudent and inconsistent” to rush into hearing the case.
Trump faces 40 charges in the case over his handling of classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Jack Smith, special counsel for the US Department of Justice, claimed that Trump tried to hide the material from authorities by, among other things, storing boxes in a bathroom at the villa.
The documents case, considered by some legal scholars to be the harshest of the four criminal cases brought against Trump, is one of two cases brought by Smith, who also charged the former president over his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election .
That case has stalled while the U.S. Supreme Court decides the extent of Trump’s immunity for acts committed while in office. A trial in a separate election interference case in Georgia has yet to be scheduled after a delay caused in part by the withdrawal of a special prosecutor who had a romantic relationship with the district attorney.
The documents case moved slowly as Trump’s lawyers found a sympathetic ear in Cannon. After a series of motions that made the original trial date of May 20 unfeasible, the former president’s legal team had recommended a new trial date of August 12, while reiterating its position that “a fair trial can only take place after the conclusion of the 2024 presidential election.” .” “. Smith requested the trial begin July 8.
None of those dates appear to be possible now, with Cannon scheduling a series of pretrial hearings well into late July.
The Justice Department generally prohibits the initiation of politically sensitive law enforcement actions within 60 days of an election. However, a prosecutor told Cannon that a trial during that time frame would not violate that unwritten rule because charges had already been filed.
If Trump is convicted, the maximum prison sentence for each of his 40 crimes is between five and 20 years.
Because this is a federal case, some have speculated that Trump might try to pardon himself if elected president or at least try to influence the case through his Justice Department appointees.