WASHINGTON (AP) — The Florida federal judge presiding over the classified documents prosecution of former President Donald Trump canceled the May 20 trial date, postponing it indefinitely.
The order of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon was expected given the still unresolved issues in that case and the fact that Trump is currently on trial in another case in Manhattan, accusing him of secretly paying money during the 2016 presidential election. The New York case involves many of the same lawyers representing him in the federal case in Florida.
Cannon said in a five-page order Tuesday that it would be “unwise” to set a new trial date now, casting doubt on federal prosecutors’ ability to bring Trump to justice before November’s presidential election.
Trump faces dozens of counts accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents he took with him after leaving the House at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. Blanche in 2021, then obstructing the FBI’s efforts to recover them. . He has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
Trump faces four criminal cases as he seeks to win back the White House, but aside from the New York prosecution, it is unclear whether any of the other three will face trial before the election.
THE Supreme Court weighs Trump’s arguments that he is immune from federal prosecution in a separate case by special prosecutor Jack Smith charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, also brought a case separate case related to election subversion, although it is unclear when that case might go to trial.
