Nov. 2 (UPI) — The judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s classified documents trial said Wednesday that she was open to scheduling “adjustments” as his legal team has sought to have the trial delayed.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon acknowledged that the trial, scheduled to begin on May 20, is running headlong into a Washington case accusing Trump of interfering with the 2020 presidential election set to start on March 4.
Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in 2020, questioned whether the case could remain in line with the schedule she set in July after the two sides faced issues with handling sensitive case documents.
“I’m just having a hard time seeing how realistically this work can be accomplished in this compressed period, given the realities that we’re facing,” Cannon said at a hearing on Wednesday.
Cannon said she would make “reasonable” changes to parts of the schedule including deadlines for pretrial filings but did not issue a ruling on the final date, saying she would provide the new timeline “as soon as possible.”
Trump’s lawyers last month charged that special counsel Jack Smith’s team had not given them access to all of the evidence, hindering their ability to mount a credible defense, as they requested the trial be delayed until November 2024 as Trump seeks re-election.
Smith had acknowledged that some of the scheduling changes needed to be made after Cannon paused litigation regarding the documents.
Jay Bratt, the head of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence division, however, said on Wednesday that more delays would play in the favor of Trump, whose gameplan from the beginning was to “delay it as long as they can.”
“The court should not let the D.C. case drive the schedule here,” Bratt said.
Along with running his Republican primary campaign, the ex-president is facing a blizzard of criminal and civil trials during the first half of 2024, including the two cases brought by Smith.
“It’s very difficult to be trying to work with a client in one trial and simultaneously try to prepare that client for another trial,” said Trump attorney Chris Kise, who phoned into the Florida hearing while attending Trump’s ongoing civil business trial in New York City. “This has been a struggle and a challenge.”
