U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon appears prepared to support Donald Trump’s latest request, handing the ex-president facing criminal felony charges under the Espionage Act yet another delay.
Trump’s legal team has “repeatedly complained to the judge in the Mar-a-Lago criminal document-mishandling case that they haven’t had proper access to classified evidence in the case as they prepare for a trial next May,” CNN reports. “Those complaints have evolved into the Trump team asking Cannon to postpone the trial ‘until at least mid-November 2024,'” which would be after the election Trump is trying to win, reportedly to keep him out of prison.
“No immediate ruling from Judge Cannon on Trump’s bid to delay classified documents trial set for May,” reports Politico’s Josh Gerstein after Wednesday’s hearing ended, “but she was skeptical of prosecutors’ arguments that the case can be kept more or less on track.”
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The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell appeared to reach the same assessment:
“Judge Cannon appeared inclined to delay the timetable for Trump classified docs case, saying at hearing she would enter order as soon as possible on adjustments to the schedule — repeatedly noted prospect of clashes w 2020 case in DC set to start in March.”
The Washington Post confirms, reporting that Judge Cannon “suggested at a hearing Wednesday that she might push back the planned trial timeline, citing the potential complications with the former president’s three other criminal cases.”
“I’m having a hard time seeing how this work can be accomplished in this compressed time frame,” Judge Cannon said of deadlines she herself created.