By Maria Ortiz
May 7, 2024, 7:57 PM EDT
District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who is leading the criminal case against former President Donald Trump for allegedly retaining classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence after leaving the Presidency and refusing to hand them over, indefinitely delayed the trial through an opinion released on Tuesday.
The judge’s decision makes it very unlikely that the trial in Florida against the former president and virtual Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump takes place before the 2024 presidential elections.
In her order, the judge argued that we should wait for the resolution of previous litigation, including disagreements over how classified information is used during the trial.
The start of the trial against Trump was scheduled to take place on May 20.
In the order, Cannon notes that due to “the myriad of pretrial issues” pending resolution, “it would be imprudent and inconsistent” to consider the various motions filed by the parties closed.
Cannon, who was nominated in 2020 by Trump, also scheduled additional hearings on pending matters between May and July.
The lawyers of the former president, who faces a total of four criminal cases in the United States, They had asked that the trial be delayed until Augustwhile The Prosecutor’s Office requested that it be sooner.
Trump has argued that going to trial in the weeks before the November election would amount to political interference because, otherwise, he should be campaigning for elections.
The former Republican president faces criminal proceedings for having taken classified government documents to his Mar-a-Lago mansion when he left the White House in January 2021.
In the same case, the Republican candidate faces charges of obstruction and willful withholding of official documents related to US security.the retention of which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Last April, Cannon declined to dismiss charges against the two co-defendants in the case, Waltine Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, Trump’s personal assistant and Mar-a-Lago property manager, respectively.
Nauta and De Oliveira pleaded not guilty last August to obstruction of justice charges related to alleged attempts to delete surveillance footage at the former president’s residence.
This is not the only litigation that Trump faces, since must respond in court to dozens of criminal charges against him spread across four criminal casesamong others the result of the 2021 assault on the Capitol by his supporters, when they tried to interrupt the legislative process to certify Biden’s victory in 2020.
Additionally, in New York he faces charges for alleged irregular payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels, a trial that is ongoing.
Daniels said this Tuesday in his statements as a witness in the criminal trial against Trump that He hates the Republican politician and wants him to go to jail if he is found guilty.
Trump faces 34 charges in this case, including falsifying business documents to help cover up his extramarital affair with Daniels, and, if found guilty, could face several years in prison.
Keep reading:
– Judge orders witnesses in classified Trump documents case to remain secret
– Judge Cannon sets new hearing in classified Trump documents case
– Special prosecutor calls for rejection of Trump’s immunity claim in case of classified documents