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Judge Aileen Cannon appears "unlikely" to get former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago documents case to trial before the 2024 election, according to former federal prosecutor and legal analyst Renato Mariotti on Saturday.
Trump, the current leading candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, is currently facing four criminal indictments, two of which were brought at the federal level by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and special counsel Jack Smith. One of these federal cases pertains to Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after leaving the White House, with prosecutors accusing him of illegally retaining documents with sensitive national security information, storing them in poor conditions, and refusing to cooperate when asked to return them.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming that he had a right to retain the materials and possessed a broad authority to declassify documents during his presidency. He has also accused all of the investigations against him of being politically motivated efforts to harm his presidential campaign.
Throughout the process of bringing the classified documents case to trial, Cannon, herself an appointee of the former president, has been accused of making questionable rulings that overtly favor Trump. With the matter of scheduling a start date for the trial being discussed during a recent hearing, some legal experts have expressed concern that Cannon could side with Trump's legal team, who have requested a possible start date sometime in 2025, citing his campaign schedule. Smith's team requested a start date in July. Trump has been widely accused of attempting to delay all of his cases until after the general election in November, so that he can have them dismissed if he's reelected to a second term.
Speaking on the matter during an appearance on CNN Saturday evening, Mariotti echoed those concerns and suggested that, based on her track record, Cannon is likely to go along with Trump's efforts to delay his trials.
"There are so many criminal trials that are upcoming and as far as Mar-a-Lago goes, Judge Aileen Cannon has really shown a willingness to push this trial and to give as much latitude to Trump's team as possible," he said. "It is just really hard for me to see her putting his feet to the fire, particularly given the fact that the classified documents at issue add an element of complexity give her opportunities to delay further. I just think that realistically, it is unlikely that she is going to force them to go to trial before the election."
Speaking with Newsweek on Sunday, Dave Aronberg, the state attorney in Florida's Palm Beach County, concurred with Mariotti's assessment of the classified documents trial timeline.
"I agree with Renato. This trial was never going to happen before the election," Aronberg said. "Judge Cannon is new to the bench and has never had a classified documents case like this before, which has built-in delays because of federal law. In addition, Judge Cannon has been very accommodating to Trump's requests for more time. I've always felt that this is the strongest case against Trump, but the least likely to be tried before the election."
Updated 3/3/24, 5:38 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Aronberg.
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Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more