Judge Aileen Cannon issued orders providing more details for Donald Trump's looming trial at which the former president will face a laundry list of federal felony charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office.
"This case is hereby set for a Criminal Jury Trial during the two-week period commencing August 14, 2023, or as soon thereafter as the case may be called," Judge Cannon wrote in her orders for USA v. Trump. "All hearings will be held at Alto Lee Adams, Sr. United States Courthouse, 101 South U.S. Highway 1, Courtroom 4008, Fort Pierce, Florida 34950, with modifications to be made as necessary as this matter proceeds," the order states.
JUST IN: Judge CANNON sets preliminary trial schedule for Trump case, beginning Aug. 14.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) June 20, 2023
Don’t spend a lot of time on this. It won’t hold and it’s not intended to. https://t.co/V09ZhkrQNg pic.twitter.com/xhW8ALXlxq
Judge Cannon's orders also instruct counsel to "be prepared to conduct limited voir dire following the Court's questioning of the panel" with each side being allowed to "file no more than 10 proposed voir dire questions (including any sub-parts) for the Court to consider asking of the venire." In addition, the judge said the "backstriking of jurors" will not be permitted.
In addition, Judge Cannon ordered that all "pre-trial motions and motions in limine must be filed by July 24, 2023" while former President Trump, according to the court filing, will have until "5:00 p.m. on the last business day before trial is scheduled to begin" to make any "change of plea" to charges in the case. The 45th president plead "not guilty" to all charges at his arraignment in Miami earlier this month.
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The actual start date for the trial is expected to be later — potentially much later — than the timeframe listed in the court filing, and Judge Cannon explained that a motion for a continuance of trial may be necessary — for reasons that include "the complexity of the case...the security clearance process, and any anticipated impact of the Classified Information Procedures Act," — but would only be granted if the "reasons served by granting the continuance outweigh the defendant's constitutional and statutory rights to a speedy trial."
According to a recent Axios report, "former President Trump's legal team is likely to unleash a flurry of motions and challenges to delay his criminal trial" that "could push the trial back, a few months at a time, as Trump's team challenges how prosecutors gathered evidence in the classified documents case." Tim Parlatore, a former lawyer for Trump, explained that he "wouldn't foresee this thing getting tried within a year."
More via Axios:
Zoom in: Trump and lawyers who recently departed his team have suggested some of the issues the defense is likely to challenge.
Search warrant:
- Parlatore tells Axios he believes Trump's team may challenge the process in which prosecutors obtained a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago last year. “The unredacted version of the search warrant application, I think that will cause some issues,” he said.
Attorney-client privilege:
- Many of the damaging details in the indictment were from notes that Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran took at the time. Those notes were obtained through the crime-fraud exception that allows prosecutors to pierce attorney-client privilege. A federal judge ruled in March that the government had met that standard, but Trump’s team could contest that decision.
- Trump has fixated on the issue for months, telling Newsmax in March: “They bring attorneys in as though they’re, you know, witnesses to a case. It wasn’t supposed to be that way.”
Prosecutorial misconduct:
- Trump's team is likely to argue that one of the top prosecutors in the case acted unethically.
- Hours before leaving the team on Friday, lawyer James Trusty told CNN that “we’re going to want some discovery” into prosecutors’ text messages and emails regarding a meeting that led a lawyer for Trump’s valet to accuse prosecutor Jay Bratt of improperly bringing up the lawyer's application for a judgeship.
Not for nothing, the first GOP primary debate of the 2024 cycle is scheduled for this August 23 in Milwaukee — hosted by Fox News, Young America's Foundation (YAF), and Rumble — smack dab in the middle of the period during which Judge Cannon ordered Trump's trial to begin, even though an as-ordered start seems exceedingly unlikely.
Previously, Trump expressed discontent that "nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing" debates, calling into question whether he would participate in the forums. However, a person familiar with the primary debate planning process told Townhall at the time that the RNC had spoken to every declared candidate and/or their campaign about the debate process that is now well underway for the 2024 cycle.
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