A judge on Friday heard arguments about trial deadlines in the case against former President Donald Trump in Florida and signaled she may reschedule the trial to occur several months later than originally planned.
Judge Aileen Cannon, who had set the trial to begin on May 20, said during a hearing in Fort Pierce that special counsel Jack Smith‘s proposal to reset the trial start date to July 8 was “unrealistic,” per a Lawfare reporter in the courtroom.
Cannon did not make any decisions Friday on scheduling or other items she was expected to weigh at the hearing and did not provide an indication of when she would issue a decision, Lawfare reported. However, a trial delay is expected after the judge extended key pretrial deadlines at the end of last year, which all but assured the May date would no longer be logistically possible.
Attorneys for Trump, the leading GOP presidential contender, reiterated their position ahead of Friday’s hearing that the trial should not occur until after the 2024 election.
“As the leading candidate in the 2024 election, President Trump strongly asserts that a fair trial cannot be conducted this year in a manner consistent with the Constitution, which affords President Trump a Sixth Amendment right to be present and to participate in these proceedings as well as, inter alia, a First Amendment right that he shares with the American people to engage in campaign speech,” the attorneys wrote.
During the hearing, however, Trump’s attorneys were reportedly pressed by prosecutors on providing a definitive trial timeline and responded that if Cannon could not push the trial until after the election, then their second proposal would be a trial start month of August of this year.
Smith has been aiming to proceed expeditiously with both this case and his criminal case against Trump in Washington, D.C.
Smith also, according to reports from the courtroom, argued during Friday’s hearing that Trump’s trial could occur during the final stretch of his presidential campaign, in September or October. Smith said a Department of Justice policy that limits politically sensitive investigations and prosecutions in the 60 days leading up to an election is not applicable once a prosecution has begun.
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Smith indicted Trump and two co-defendants last year over allegations they conspired to retain national defense information at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida after the former president left office and that they obstructed the investigation. Trump and the two others, aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago employee Carlos de Oliveira, have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
