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Special counsel Jack Smith has hit back at Donald Trump's effort to delay disclosure deadlines in the latter's classified documents case because of the former president's hush-money trial.
Jury selection is set to begin in Trump's hush-money trial in New York on Monday.
That case centers on allegations that Trump falsified his company's internal records to hide the nature of payments to his former lawyer Michael Cohen. Cohen paid adult actor Stormy Daniels to allegedly buy her silence about an extramarital sexual encounter she claimed she had with Trump years earlier. Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, faces 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has pleaded not guilty and denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels.
In Florida, Trump is facing 40 felony counts that accuse him of willfully retaining dozens of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after he left the White House, and obstructing government efforts to give them back. He has also pleaded not guilty to those charges and denied any wrongdoing.
The case was initially set for trial on May 20. Judge Aileen Cannon heard arguments last month about a new date but has yet to set one. Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, has come under scrutiny for her rulings, which critics say have been too favorable toward Trump and allowed him to delay the start of the trial.
On Saturday, Trump's attorneys filed a motion seeking a delay of the May 9 disclosure deadline that Cannon issued in the case earlier in April. The motion asked for it to be moved to three weeks after Trump's trial in New York—expected to last about six weeks—concludes. If Trump's motion for a delay is granted, the new deadline could be in mid-July, meaning the case would not go to trial on July 8 as Smith has proposed.
Smith responded to the bid for a delay in a filing on Sunday.
"This Court set the May 9 deadline fully apprised of defendant Trump's New York trial," his filing said.
"Although the defendants' motion reads as though the Court were unaware of Trump's other case, and as if the defendants had no forewarning that a Section 5 deadline would be set, those premises are plainly wrong."
He added that the defendants "have had ample notice that these deadlines would be scheduled and have already had months to complete the work."
Smith went on to say that the claim that Trump's lawyers "need the entire duration of Trump's New York trial and three additional weeks to prepare their CIPA Section 5 notice and expert disclosure strains credibility and belies their true objective: delay."
Trump has local counsel who are familiar with the case, have the necessary security clearances and are not participating in the New York trial to "handle any remaining work on the submissions," Smith argued.
"Each time the Court sets a new deadline in this case and attempts to keep it moving toward trial, the defendants reflexively ask for an adjournment," he concluded.
"That must stop. The Court should deny defendants' motions to continue the May 9 expert witness disclosure and CIPA Section 5 notice deadlines."
Newsweek has contacted the special counsel's office and Trump's attorneys for comment via email.
About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more