Trump, meanwhile, renewed his call to delay the trial until after the presidential election.
Jack Smith’s proposal, which would likely force Trump off the campaign trail during the Republican National Convention, comes as U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon seems poised to push back Trump’s currently scheduled May 20 trial. | Alex Wong/Getty Images
Special counsel Jack Smith is asking the federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s criminal proceedings in Florida to reset his trial for July 8 with monthly check-ins to ensure the classified documents case remains on track.
The proposal from the prosecutor — which would likely force Trump off the campaign trail during the Republican National Convention — comes as U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon seems poised to push back Trump’s currently scheduled May 20 trial. Trump is facing dozens of charges on allegations that he stashed national security secrets at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump, in a competing filing on Thursday evening, renewed his call for Cannon to push the trial past the 2024 presidential election. But he also offered an alternative proposal, should Cannon not wish to delay that long: an Aug. 12 start date that would likely result in a trial lasting through September.
In his filing, Trump leaned heavily on his schedule as the presumptive GOP nominee, going as far as to deliver a proposed calendar to the court that includes a list of presidential primary dates and the dates of the Republican convention, which is scheduled for July 15 to 18.
For Cannon — whom Trump appointed to the federal bench in 2020 — the dueling proposals will test whether she intends to factor Trump’s political schedule into his criminal proceedings as the gravitational pull of the presidential campaign becomes harder to ignore.
At a hearing on Friday, she may telegraph her thinking on the timeline — a potentially decisive issue given that, if Trump is elected president while the charges are still pending, he could shut down the case entirely.
Cannon bucked Trump’s initial call, shortly after he was charged in 2023, to schedule a trial for after Election Day. Conversely, Smith had originally sought a December 2023 trial date and was similarly rebuffed by Cannon, who appeared to split the difference by selecting the May 20 start date. But that date now seems all but certain to be called off due to pretrial complications and delays, some of which resulted from Cannon’s own plodding pace.
Trump’s alternative August schedule would serve another purpose: potentially boxing out a trial in Washington, D.C., where he’s facing charges related to his effort to subvert the 2020 election. That case, which was initially scheduled for March 4, has been on hold for months and is now awaiting the Supreme Court’s consideration of Trump’s claim to be immune from the charges. If the high court rejects Trump’s claim and sends the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the Obama-appointed judge would have to work around a Florida trial schedule that could extend all the way through Election Day.
Source: Politico