Two lawyers for former president Donald Trump are trying to delay their client’s classified-documents case until after the 2024 presidential election.
Attorneys Todd Blanche and Christopher Kise requested that U.S. district judge Aileen Cannon, who presides over the federal case, adjourn the trial date “until at least mid-November 2024,” per a Wednesday court filing. The document claims special counsel Jack Smith has not shared all evidence yet, despite his office promising on July 18 that “all discovery” would be made available starting on “day one” of the case.
More than 25 percent of the classified material pertaining to the superseding indictment has still not been handed over by Smith in the discovery process, Blanche and Kise said.
Both also pointed to the “lack of necessary secure facilities,” where the Trump defense must review copies of the classified materials, as a reason for postponing the trial.
“In sum, the Special Counsel’s Office has failed to make very basic arrangements in this District for the handling of the relevant classified information, the holding of necessary [Classified Information Procedures Act] hearings, and the production of related work product by the Court and counsel,” the court motion read. “The requested adjournments are necessary to allow time for these facilities to be established.”
In citing a “conflicting schedule,” Trump’s attorneys challenged the documents-trial start date in relation to when Smith’s election-fraud indictment of the former president will go to court.
“The March 4, [2024] 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,” Blanche and Kise wrote.
Cannon previously scheduled the documents trial in Florida for May 20, 2024, more than two months after Super Tuesday during the Republican primaries. Notably, Super Tuesday will occur across 15 states on March 5, one day after Trump’s election-fraud trial begins in Washington, D.C.
“There is no good reason to continue on the current path,” the lawyers concluded about the documents case’s date. “Therefore, President Trump respectfully submits that the adjournment requests should be granted.”
Trump faces 44 federal charges in both of Smith’s issued indictments, as well as 47 state charges brought forward by two separate indictments from district attorneys in Georgia and New York.