Former President Donald Trump and his legal team earned a victory in court Friday as Judge Aileen Cannon granted a delay in a pre-trial filing deadline in the classified documents case.
Cannon ordered a stay in the Trump team's Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) deadline while she mulls whether to push back the pre-trial schedule.
Cannon's decision came a day after the Trump team petitioned the judge to postpone his classified documents trial until after next year's presidential election. The trial is currently scheduled for May 20 in Florida. The 2024 general election is Nov. 5.
Trump faces trial, in this case, for illegally hoarding classified documents. He has denied any wrongdoing.
In their filing to postpone, Trump's legal team cited scheduling conflicts — another criminal trial in March 2024 — and the fact they haven't received all of the records from prosecutors.
"The March 4, 2023 trial date in the District of Columbia, and the underlying schedule in that case, currently require President Trump and his lawyers to be in two places at once," Trump's attorneys wrote in the filing.
Further, Trump's attorneys referenced delays in gaining access to all of the classified evidence from special counsel Jack Smith's office, something prosecutors have acknowledged.
"Trump's lawyers are using CIPA to try to delay the trial, saying the Special Counsel hasn't produced all the discovery and that they want to review all the discovery before they engage in the CIPA litigation process," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Salon.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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