Former President Trump is hoping to indefinitely delay the case against him over mishandling of classified documents, according to US media reports.
The 2024 presidential race hopeful has been arguing his status as a candidate, along with a batch of other factors, as part of an alleged strategy that could postpone the trial until a more favorable window opened up.
If the Republican ex-president were to be reelected for another WH stint, he could have the charges thrown out by his own administration’s Justice Department, media reports speculated. Or if Trump were to lose the nomination, another newly elected Republican president could purportedly pardon him.
The delay that Trump seeks was qualified as “off the charts unprecedented” by Jeff Robbins, a former federal prosecutor cited by media. Judge Aileen Cannon is expected to decide on the motion for a continuance of the trial, filed by Trump’s legal team on July 10.
According to the indictment, the classified documents Trump stored in boxes at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida included information about defense and weapons capabilities of both the US and foreign countries, US nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of the US and its allies to military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. However, Trump has blasted the charges as being part of a political scheme to prevent his reelection bid.
US Special Counsel Jack Smith said back in June that he would be seeking to have a trial begin on December 11. However, Former US President Donald Trump's legal team asked the court to delay his trial.
“The court now presides over a prosecution advanced by the administration of a sitting president against his chief political rival, himself a leading candidate for the presidency of the United States,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the brief.
Beginning a trial of such magnitude "within six months of indictment" was decried as "unreasonable" by the lawyers, who warned of the possibilty of a "miscarriage of justice.”
“The Government appears to favor an expedited (and therefore cursory) approach to this case,” they added, saying that it “presents a serious challenge to both the fact and perception of our American democracy.”
According to the lawyers representing the 45th POTUS, there are a plethora of reasons for seeking a delay to the trial, ranging from Trump’s need to devote a great deal of time to his campaign, to the bulk of evidence in the case that lawyers have to sort through.
The Justice Department has pushed back against the demand for a postponement.
“There is no basis in law or fact for proceeding in such an indeterminate and open-ended fashion, and the Defendants provide none,” prosecutors wrote to US District Judge.
The first hearing before Aileen Cannon in the classified docs federal criminal case against Donald Trump had been set for July 18, with the US District Judge expected to decide on the motion for a continuance of the trial.