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Judge Aileen Cannon has granted Donald Trump a delay in his classified documents case, despite intense objections from prosecutors.
Cannon granted Trump a 10-day extension after hearing that he and his lawyers are preparing for Trump's Stormy Daniels hush money trial in New York, which begins later this month.
The objection was placed in court by Jay Bratt, chief of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES) of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice. Bratt has been brought in to the case as a specialist legal adviser as national security documents were allegedly found at Trump's Florida estate.
Trump is facing 40 federal charges over his handling of sensitive materials 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 return them. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is almost certain to be the Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
He is also due to go on trial on March 25 to face 34 charges over allegations he instructed attorney Michael Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep an alleged affair between her and the former president a secret ahead of the 2016 election. Trump is accused of listing the payment to Cohen as "legal fees." The former president denies having an affair with Daniels.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's attorney via email for comment on Tuesday.
Trump's lawyers also told Cannon that they needed time to prepare for a hearing in the classified documents case and therefore need more time to file documents in support of eight objections to trial they have lodged in court.
In his submission to the court, Trump's lawyer, Chris Kise, wrote that he needed a 10-day extension because Trump and his lawyers have to travel to Fort Pierce for a hearing on the classified documents case on March 14 and need time to prepare for it.
In addition, "President Trump and counsel are currently preparing for a trial in New York, New York that is scheduled to begin on March 25, 2024, and the need to simultaneously devote attention to that case".
He wrote that the clash between the classified documents case in Florida and the Stormy Daniels case in New York has been caused, in part, "by the discovery violations and strategic scheduling demands of the Special Counsel's Office that have prejudiced President Trump in multiple respects."
As well as Bratt's objection, Special Counsel Jack Smith also strongly objected to the delay and wrote in a court submission on Monday that Trump has long known the date of the Stormy Daniels trial and is only using it as a last-minute delay tactic.
Smith previously alleged to Judge Cannon that Trump is trying to delay the classified documents case until after the presidential election, when, as president, Trump may be able to have the case dropped.
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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