May 7 (UPI) — Former President Donald Trump’s classified documents trial was postponed indefinitely Tuesday after the federal judge overseeing the case vacated this month’s trial date due to outstanding pretrial litigation.
In a new order, Judge Aileen Cannon vacated the current start date of May 20, making it less likely the case will go to trial before Election Day.
“The court also determines that finalization of a trial date at this juncture — before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and CIPA issues remaining and forthcoming — would be imprudent and inconsistent with the court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the court, critical CIPA issues, and additional pretrial and trial preparations necessary to present this case to a jury,” Cannon wrote in the new order.
Cannon said she still has “eight substantive pretrial motions” she must rule on, with most of the litigation on CIPA — that will determine how classified information should be presented at trial — being pushed into July.
“The court therefore vacates the current May 20, 2024, trial date to be reset by separate order following resolution of the matters before the court, consistent with defendants’ right to due process and the public’s interest in the fair and efficient administration of justice,” Cannon wrote Tuesday.
Cannon has scheduled two hearings on May 22 on two motions to dismiss. Last month, the judge rejected Trump’s attempt to dismiss the case on the argument that the Presidential Records Act does not apply pretrial.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 37 counts related to mishandling classified documents after he left the White House, and has argued that any pre-election trial would be “unfair.” He is charged with storing hundreds of documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and conspiring to hide them from federal authorities. Prosecutors allege he violated the Espionage Act.
As Cannon faces pretrial litigation over how to handle the classified documents at trial, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team admitted last week that some boxes of documents were not in the exact order they were found.
“The filter team took care to ensure that no documents were moved from one box to another, but it was not focused on maintaining the sequence of documents within each box,” prosecutors responded Friday in a filing, after Trump’s legal team complained about how Smith’s team was handling the documents.
Smith’s office declined to comment Tuesday on Cannon’s order to delay the trial.
Trump is currently on trial in New York for 34 counts related to falsifying business records to hide hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
With Tuesday’s postponed documents trial date, there are currently no trial dates set for Trump’s other three criminal cases against him. The former president and current Republican presidential nominee has tried to postpone all cases until after November’s general election, arguing they amount to election interference and keep him off of the campaign trail.
