A federal judge in Florida on Friday held a hearing to set a date for former US president Donald Trump’s trial on charges of mishandling classified documents, and said a July 8 start proposed by prosecutors was unlikely.
Trump, 77, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, attended the hearing during which his attorneys said that the trial should not be held until after the November election.
Lawyers for the former president said that if District Judge Aileen Cannon does insist on setting a date, the trial should begin on Aug. 12.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges against the former president, had proposed the July 8 start date but Cannon, during Friday’s hearing, said that was “unrealistic” given all of the pretrial motions in the case.
The hearing, held in Fort Pierce, about 200km north of Miami, concluded without Cannon setting a date for the start of the trial.
Trump pleaded not guilty in June to charges of unlawfully retaining national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.
He kept the classified files — which included records from the Pentagon, CIA and US National Security Agency — unsecured at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and thwarted official efforts to retrieve them, the indictment states.
Lawyers for Trump have sought repeatedly to delay his court cases until after the November election, when he could potentially have the federal charges against him dropped if he wins.
Trump also faces federal charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by US President Joe Biden.
That trial had been scheduled to begin in Washington next week, but has been put on hold while the US Supreme Court hears Trump’s claim that as a former president he is immune from prosecution.
Trump has lodged a similar presidential immunity claim with Cannon, the Florida judge, and she could potentially freeze the documents case pending a decision from the nation’s highest court on the immunity bid.
The Supreme Court has scheduled arguments in the high-stakes immunity case for the week of April 22, and is expected to issue a ruling before the end of June.
Trump also faces 2020 election interference charges in Georgia and is scheduled to go on trial in New York on March 25 on state charges of falsifying business records by paying pre-election hush money to a porn star.
A judge in Georgia on Friday heard final arguments in a bid by lawyers for Trump and other defendants to disqualify the prosecutor in their election interference case.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said he would deliver his decision on whether to disqualify Willis within two weeks.
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