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Trump's chief trial lawyer is seeking to appear in his Florida trial remotely as the former president's legal team struggles to keep up with the five trials he is facing.
Christopher Kise has applied to phone in to the Florida classified documents case on Wednesday because he has to be in New York for Trump's civil fraud trial. Kise said in a legal submission earlier this month that the legal team is being overstretched. He added that federal prosecutors are engaged in a "reckless" attempt to convict Trump before the 2024 presidential election. The former president denies any wrongdoing and has repeatedly called the various charges the result of a political witch hunt.
Kise has applied to Justice Aileen Cannon to phone into the pre-trial hearing in Florida on November 1. Newsweek has sought email comment from Trump's legal team.
"As the Court may be aware, the undersigned counsel for President Trump, Christopher M. Kise, is unable to attend the November 1st hearing in person because he is engaged at trial in New York State Supreme Court. Given this conflict, the undersigned respectfully requests that this Court allow him to attend the November 1, 2023, hearing telephonically," his submission states. It adds that co-counsel for Trump, Todd Blanche, will appear in person at the Florida hearing.
Trump is facing two federal trials: one in Florida for allegedly hoarding classified documents; and the other in Washington D.C. for allegedly tampering with the 2020 election. He faces a similar election tampering case in Georgia, as well as a trial in New York for allegedly giving hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels in violation of campaign finance law. The former president denies any wrongdoing in all the cases.
The New York attorney general is also suing Trump in civil court for fraudulently inflating the value of his assets.
In addition, the former president is facing two cases this week seeking to strike him from the 2024 presidential ballots in Colorado and Minnesota, based on his alleged support for federal insurrection in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
In addition to that, Arizona's attorney general is investigating Trump's 2020 election campaign and is moving closer towards Georgia-style indictments. In a written submission in the Florida case on October 11, Kise strongly criticized the number of criminal cases against Trump.
Kise said that the Florida case, which is set to start in May, could conflict with Trump's Washington D.C, trial, due to begin in March, and that federal prosecutors are violating Trump's rights.
"The fact that they continue to contend that it is appropriate and not a violation of President Trump's due process rights to push forward with back-to-back multi-month trials in different districts with wholly different facts — over a defendant's objection — reveals a central truth about these cases," Kise wrote.
He accused the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith of "a reckless effort to try to obtain a conviction of President Trump prior to the 2024 election, no matter the cost." The former president is the forerunner in the race to secure the GOP presidential nomination.
Newsweek has sought email comment from the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more