Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge overseeing the former president’s federal classified documents case, signaled on Thursday that she will not entertain special counsel Jack Smith’s requests to nail down pretrial dates ahead of a May 2024 start to the trial.
On Thursday, Smith filed a request to begin expediting the discovery of classified evidence that President Trump’s attorneys plan to use in his defense, according to ABC News. Judge Cannon ruled against Smith even before the president’s attorneys could file their own objection.
The decision by Judge Cannon mirrors earlier decisions and indicates that President Trump’s trial may be pushed, a request that his attorneys have pushed for vociferously as they argue that prosecutors are seeking a high-profile trial during an election year. Cannon has stated politics will play no role in her reasoning.
In a case so voluminous, the discovery process may take longer than Smith would like. Prosecutors intend to introduce roughly 1.3 million pages of documents and thousands of hours of video footage obtained from Mar-a-Lago, where they contend that the president and his team kept classified materials…
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