A federal court judge on Tuesday indefinitely postponed former U.S. president Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in Florida. District Judge Aileen Cannon deferred the trial referring to huge issues involved around classified evidence that would be worked out before the federal criminal case goes to a jury.
The order by the Judge, who was appointed by Trump in 2020 has decreased the chances the former president will face a jury in the other three federal criminal cases against him before the US election on Nov 5. Cannon did not set a new date but scheduled pre-trial hearings to run through July 22.
Trump, who is looking to return to office, recently had been booked to go to trial on May 20 in the hush-money case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, however the prosecution and defense had both agreed that date needed to be deferred.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 federal counts accusing him of illegally keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in 2021 and obstructing U.S. government efforts to retrieve them.
Trump, who is the Republican candidate faces president Joe Biden, who is a Democratic candidate and defeated the former in 2020.
Since April 15, Trump has been on trial in the New York state court on charges he unlawfully sought to conceal hush-money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. He has also been charged in state court in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump has said all the legal cases against him are politically motivated.
The charges in the Florida case incorporate infringement of the Espionage Act, which condemns the unapproved possession of national security data, as well as conspiracy to impede justice and making false statements to investigators.
Meanwhile, Smith faces huge impediments to getting either federal case of evidence against Trump to trial before the 2024 presidential election. Cannon is yet to rule on several issues critical to the illegal documents case and has asked for help for Trump’s defense on certain issues.
Trump’s legal team said a trial in the hush-money case should not begin until after the presidential election, yet in addition proposed an Aug. 12 date considering a request from Cannon to propose a timeline for the case. Smith proposed a July start date.
The former president’s attorneys have attempted to defer all the four criminal cases he faces.
“We’re in this absolutely unprecedented situation where a defendant is potentially going to have the power to shut down his own prosecution,” said Randall Eliason, law professor at the George Washington University, who is an expert in white-collar criminal cases. He added that it’s an argument to get the case to trial before the election.
If either federal case arrives in front of a jury before the presidential race, it would probably be in the weeks preceding Nov. 5, a result sure to draw allegations of election interference from Trump’s lawyers.
Yet, a Trump win in November might imply that neither case at any point arrives in front of a jury. As president, Trump could direct the Justice Department to drop the federal charges or try to absolve himself.
Smith’s team has pushed aggressive deadlines times in the Florida case, contending that the public has the right to a speedy trial. Prosecutor Jay Bratt told Cannon during a meeting that a pre-winter trial would not violate Justice Department guidelines that restrict taking investigative strides close to an election that could influence the result of the vote.
Cannon has denied two bids by Trump to dismiss the charges, yet a few remain pending. She likewise has signalled that Trump’s claims that the documents were private records might be pertinent to how she instructs the jury at a future trial, a decision that could prompt an appeal by prosecutors and more postponements.