(Washington) Donald Trump’s lawyers have requested that the trial of the former US president accused of possessing classified documents after leaving the White House be postponed until after the 2024 presidential election.
Mr. A trial in Florida is scheduled to begin on May 20, 2024, in one of the four criminal cases in which Trump is currently charged.
However, in a motion filed on Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump’s lawyers urged Judge Eileen Cannon to delay the start of the trial until at least November 2024.
Due to a scheduling conflict – Mr. Trump is due to face another hearing in Washington in March — and they argued that delays in obtaining and reviewing classified documents cited in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment meant the trial could not begin in May.
“The Office of the Special Counsel failed to provide some of the most basic documents in the case,” said Mr. Trump’s attorneys, Christopher Kiss and Todd Blanch, condemned the claim.
“Given the current timeline, we cannot underestimate the impact of President Trump not yet receiving critical documents prepared months ago for his team. »
The 2024 mid-November test would mean it would take place after the presidential election scheduled for November 5. In the race for the Republican nomination, Mr. Trump is currently the favorite.
For their part, lawyers in the case last week said Mr. They warned that Trump’s team would seek to unreasonably delay the start of the investigation.
While they acknowledged that some stages in revealing evidence were “slightly slower than expected”, prosecutors said it would be wrong to accuse them of trying to slow down the process.
The Justice Department says it has so far released about 1.28 million pages of declassified documents and has turned over most of the classified evidence it plans to present to the court. Most of the remaining classified evidence is expected to be turned over to the defense by Friday.
In this case, Mr. Trump has been accused of illegally keeping tons of classified documents that he took with him after leaving the White House in 2021.
Most of these documents are stored at his estate in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
The former president has also been accused of repeatedly obstructing the central government’s efforts to retrieve the said documents. He is innocent and has denied any wrongdoing.
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