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The defense team representing former President Donald Trump in the classified documents case is attempting to postpone "critically important" information for voters by requesting that the case's trial date be pushed back until after the 2024 election, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said.
Trump is facing 37 federal felony counts over his handling of classified documents in connection to the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation of the sensitive materials recovered from his Mar-a-Lago estate. The former president has pleaded not guilty in the case, and his lawyers have been sparring with Special Counsel Jack Smith over a potential start date for the trial in Miami, Florida, federal court.
During a hearing Tuesday, Trump's lawyers argued for the trial to be pushed back until after the 2024 election, telling the Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that the public attention ahead of the 2024 presidential race, in which Trump is the leading GOP candidate for the party's nomination, would not allow for a fair trial, reported CNN.
Cannon agreed that the pre-trial time proposed by federal prosecutors was "compressed," read the report, but was unconvinced by the defense's argument. Smith has proposed for the two-week trial to begin in mid-December.
Kirschner tore apart Trump's argument during Wednesday's episode of his Justice Matters podcast, pointing out that Trump has incessantly claimed that the DOJ's indictment against him "constitutes election interference."
"OK, who is it in that courtroom down in Florida that argued specifically for a trial date to occur at a time relevant to a presidential election?" Kirschner posed. "That would be Donald Trump and his lawyers. They are the ones tying together legal proceedings and the date of an election."
"You know what Trump and company are trying to do?" he continued. "They're trying to deprive the voters of critically important information that they would otherwise have if Donald Trump's case went to trial before the election. What is that information? Well, they would know in November 2024 whether they were voting for a convicted felon or somebody who was fully exonerated at trial."
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who served under the Trump administration, echoed during an appearance on CNN Wednesday night that it was not fair for voters to go to the polls next year without knowing the results of Trump's trial.
"Any defendant is entitled to time to prepare his defense," Bolton told CNN's Kaitlan Collins. "But as they say, justice delayed is justice denied. If Trump really wanted justice, he would be saying, I want to go to trial as soon as possible and remove this cloud from over my candidacy. That's not what he wants to do."
Newsweek emailed Trump's press team late Monday night for comment.
About the writer
Kaitlin Lewis is a Newsweek reporter on the Night Team based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus is reporting on national ... Read more