Trump’s classified documents trial in Florida postponed indefinitely

A judge has postponed indefinitely Donald Trump’s federal trial in Florida over his alleged mishandling of classified documents while in office.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said it would be “unwise” to set a trial date before resolving important questions about the trial evidence.

Her court order on Tuesday vacated the May 20, 2024 start date she previously set for the proceedings.

The trial is now unlikely to begin before the US election on November 5.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers have proposed that the trial take place after his presidential rematch with Joe Biden, his successor in the White House. Prosecutors, for their part, insisted that it take place this year.

But the May 20 date set by Judge Cannon looked increasingly unlikely to hold, amid slow deliberations on multiple pretrial issues.

The former president is accused of keeping top secret documents in his possession after leaving office, rather than returning them to the National Archives as required by law.

Government prosecutors also alleged that he then obstructed efforts to recover the documents, including by plotting to erase security video from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Mr. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to all 40 charges against him, which range from conspiracy to obstruct justice to making a false statement.

Also charged alongside him are his personal assistant Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, property manager at Mar-a-Lago. Both men have also pleaded not guilty.

Defense lawyers and prosecutors have repeatedly argued in court over what classified evidence can be presented at trial, causing a series of delays.

Some legal commentators also suggested that Judge Cannon, who has often sided with Mr. Trump’s arguments, was deliberately slowing down the case on behalf of the man who appointed her to the court.

In his Tuesday filing, the judge scheduled additional hearings on the outstanding issues, including one in late July, and declined to set a new date for the trial to begin.

Setting a trial date at this point, she wrote, “would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pretrial motions pending before the Court.”

“The Court therefore vacates the current trial date of May 20, 2024 (and the associated calendar appeal), which will be reset by a separate order following the resolution of the matters before the Court,” she added.

Carl Tobias, a law expert at the University of Richmond, said Judge Cannon did not act to limit “delaying tactics” by Mr. Trump’s team.

“Some complications and delays were perhaps unavoidable … but the judge’s inability to take control and move the case forward, or to seek help, is surprising,” he said.

Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, faces dozens of charges in three other criminal cases and is currently on trial in New York.

But he is also awaiting a ruling from the Supreme Court on his claims of presidential immunity, a ruling he says could influence any criminal charges against him.