Donald Trump Requests Classified Documents Trial Be Delayed Until After 2024 Presidential Election
July 11 2023, Published 9:00 a.m. ET
Donald Trump asked a judge this week to delay his classified documents trial until after the 2024 presidential election, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The surprising request reportedly came on Monday night when the embattled ex-president’s legal team submitted a court filing to U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon.
According to the court filing, Trump and his attorneys are concerned that the classified documents trial – which Judge Cannon is currently considering scheduling for December 2023 – will “create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process” due to the defendant’s candidacy in the upcoming election.
“Proceeding to trial during the pendency of a Presidential election cycle wherein opposing candidates are effectively (if not literally) directly adverse to one another in this action will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process and limit the Defendants’ ability to secure a fair and impartial adjudication,” lawyers representing both Trump and his body man-turned-co-defendant, Walt Nauta, wrote.
Meanwhile, Special Counsel Jack Smith has reportedly urged Judge Cannon to schedule Trump’s trial for December 2023 – a date the ex-president’s attorneys said would be “too soon” and “nearly impossible” to prepare Trump and Nauta for.
Trump’s attorneys also cited the former president’s October 2023 civil trial for alleged fraud in New York and his March 2024 criminal trial for alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels as reasons for delaying the classified documents trial.
“There is no ongoing threat to national security interests nor any concern regarding continued criminal activity,” Trump’s legal team wrote in Monday’s request.
“Therefore,” they continued, “a measured consideration and timeline that allows for a careful and complete review of the procedures that led to this indictment and the unprecedented legal issues presented herein best serve the interests of the Defendants and the public.”
Trump’s attorneys also requested that “none of the evidence” presented during the former president’s classified documents trial “be kept from the public” despite the fact that most of the evidence includes sensitive and confidential government information.
“The Defendants believe there should simply be no ‘secret’ evidence, nor any facts concealed from public view relative to the prosecution of a leading Presidential candidate by his political opponent,” Trump’s defense team wrote.
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As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Trump was indicted last month on 37 felony charges, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, by a federal grand jury in Miami.
The embattled ex-president was arrested and pleaded not guilty to the 37 charges a few days later.
