Donald Trump Abruptly Changes His Request to Aileen Cannon

Donald Trump and his legal team are swiftly changing course on a request made to Judge Aileen Cannon in the former president's classified documents case.

Trump is facing 40 federal charges over his handling of sensitive materials that were retrieved from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after leaving the White House in January 2021. He is accused of obstructing efforts by federal authorities to have them returned. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

On Thursday, Trump's lawyers sought an August 12 trial start date in the criminal case—about one month after the date requested by prosecutors—citing Trump's schedule as the likely Republican candidate in November's presidential election. Aside from his campaign and upcoming GOP primaries, he also faces criminal trials in Georgia, New York and Washington, D.C.

But on Friday, Trump's legal team in Florida said that the submission mentioned August 12 in relation to evidentiary material, not a trial beginning.

"Trump's defense is asking Judge Cannon for a trial date AFTER the November election," MSNBC's Katie Phang wrote Friday on X, formerly Twitter. "They claim the August date proposed yesterday was just for evidentiary hearings, not for the actual trial. They claim that Trump has other trials & campaigning to do."

Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and current president of the West Coast Trial Lawyers firm in California, told Newsweek via phone on Friday that efforts by Trump's lawyers are conducive to dragging out the legal process.

"The last thing the defense wants is a trial before the election," Rahmani said. "They are trying to push this to 2025 in the hope that Trump wins and the case has to be dismissed.

"Everything they are doing procedurally related to discovery and admission of classified documents has that goal in mind: delay."

Denny Salas, political strategist and senior vice president at New York-based Gotham Government Relations, told Newsweek via email that Trump is feeling more "confident" in his legal abilities to postpone criminal proceedings until after the election.

"These instances have allowed Trump to concentrate on his campaign, prompting him to direct his legal team to exhaust all possible strategies to delay the document case in Florida," Salas said.

The sentiment is shared by MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin, who said Thursday on X that Trump's legal team chose August to impact the start date of the ex-president's election fraud trial in front of Judge Tanya Chutkan.

The suggestion also comes simultaneously as the U.S. Supreme Court must decide whether Trump has presidential community in that election case, which he and his attorneys have argued prevents him from being criminally culpable.

"This is a coded invitation to Judge Cannon to schedule absolutely nothing—or in the alternative, a trial date that would effectively block Judge Chutkan from trying the case before her before the election," Rubin wrote.

The submission on Thursday also included a calendar of "grayed out" days in which Trump was unavailable to appear in court.

Those dates include the Super Tuesday primaries on March 5 in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and American Samoa.

It also encompasses the project timeline for the "hush money" trial in New York involving adult film actress Stormy Daniels, starting with jury selection on March 25 and potentially concluding on May 10.

Trump faces 34 counts in that case, accused of paying Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair months before the 2016 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty and has continuously denied any wrongdoing. Many of his supporters believe the case is politically motivated.

Update 03/01/24, 2:09 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Denny Salas.