Former President Donald Trump was handed a significant victory today as his trial regarding the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago has been indefinitely postponed by presiding Judge Aileen Cannon. The trial was set to start May 20 and does not have a new start date.
Background of the Case
The trial will examine allegations that Trump mishandled classified documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago. This is one of four criminal cases involving the former President.
Reasons for Delay
The trial is delayed due to unresolved issues regarding how classified information can be treated and utilized in the trial itself. The federal law surrounding the treatment of classified information is called the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), and until the court can better understand how to utilize the classified documents in the course of carrying out the trial, the trial cannot commence .
Judge Cannon’s Statement
Judge Cannon will not set a future trial date until all pre-trial and Classified Information Procedures Act related issues are resolved. In a five page order, Judge Cannon wrote, “Finalization of a trial date at this juncture — before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and [classified evidence] issues … would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions.”
Legal Team’s Request
The decision to indefinitely put off the trial is a significant win for Trump’s legal team which initially moved to avoid setting a trial date.
Unresolved Motions
Before the trial can commence, Judge Cannon must first rule on eight weighty pretrial motions.
CIPA Litigation Schedule
The CIPA motions will not be heard until July, and only after all CIPA and pretrial concerns are determined can the trial commence.
Suspension of CIPA Deadline
Other deadlines related to CIPA are also being impacted by complications of handling classified documents in court. Trump’s lawyers argued that there were legal problems with how prosecutors were handling the classified documents.
Prosecutors’ Handling of Documents
In response to Trump’s legal team’s accusations, prosecutors stated that their handling of documents was inconsequential for trial preparation, but admitted to some disorder regarding how prosecutors preserved the sequence of the classified documents within the boxes.
Prosecutor’s Admission of Not Preserving Sequence of Documents
Prosecutors wrote in a court document, “The team took care to ensure that no documents were moved from one box to another but it was not focused on maintaining the sequence of documents within each box.”
Claims about Document Sequence Within Boxes
Additionally, prosecutors stated that it was not until nine months after the fact that Trump’s team raised the issues about “intra-box sequencing.”
Implications of the Postponement
The postponement of the trial is good news for the Trump defense team, which is fighting multiple legal battles up and down the East Coast. It is alternatively a significant setback for special counsel Jack Smith, who may see another of his cases against Trump face postponement as well.
Smith Presidential Immunity Case Will Also Potentially Face Significant Delays
Smith is involved in prosecuting another case against Trump, which is currently awaiting a decision by the Supreme Court before it can be tried. The case involves a claim by Trump that he has presidential immunity from being charged criminally in regard to his actions after the 2020 election. The Supreme Court must rule on the scope of presidential immunity protections.
Legal and Political Stakes
Meanwhile, as the Mar-a-Lago documents case awaits pre-trial and CIPA clarifications, Trump is engaged fully in a criminal trial in New York regarding hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels in the days leading up to the 2016 election.
Future Proceedings
Only after Judge Cannon resolves a complicated array of issues involving the use of classified documents in court proceedings will Trump’s trial date be reset.
