By Brady Knox. Media: Washingtonexaminer
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has indefinitely suspended former President Donald Trump’s classified documents trial.
The move had been widely anticipated for some time and marks perhaps the greatest legal victory in Trump’s struggle against his four major indictments. The trial was previously scheduled to take place on May 20.
Cannon gave her reasoning as respecting Trump’s right to due process and the public’s interest in the “fair and efficient administration of justice.”
Special counsel Jack Smith had urged Cannon to hold the trial in July and laid out his case earlier this month. Trump’s team argued that the trial should be held after the November election or after August at the earliest.
Cannon partially justified the delay as needed in order to comply with the Classified Information Procedures Act, which all cases involving classified documents must abide by.
“The Court also determines that finalization of a trial date at this juncture—before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and CIPA issues remaining and forthcoming—would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court, critical CIPA issues, and additional pretrial and trial preparations necessary to present this case to a jury,” Cannon wrote.
Though not his first official indictment, the classified documents case was the first legal battle with Trump to go public, after FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago compound on Aug. 8, 2022.
The search came as a shock to many and represented the first major legal challenge to Trump since leaving office, coming nearly a half year before his first indictment. He was indicted on 40 charges one year after the search.
Trump is accused of mishandling classified documents from his administration, taking them to his private residence after leaving office, and being uncooperative with government officials trying to retrieve them.