WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 A federal judge in Florida has scheduled a trial date for next May for former President Donald Trump in a case charging him with illegally retaining hundreds of classified documents.
The , set Friday by , is a compromise between a for this December and a bid by defense lawyers to put it off indefinitely until sometime after the 2024 presidential election.
If the date holds, it would follow close on the heels of a on dozens of state charges of falsifying business records in connection with an alleged hush money payment to a porn actor. It also means the trial would not start until deep into the presidential nominating calendar and probably well after the Republican nominee is clear 鈥 though before that person is officially nominated at the Republican 好色tv Convention.
In pushing back the trial from the Dec. 11 start date that the Justice Department had asked for, Cannon wrote that 鈥渢he Government鈥檚 proposed schedule is atypically accelerated and inconsistent with ensuring a fair trial.鈥 She agreed with defense lawyers that the amount of evidence that would need to be sifted through before the trial, including classified information, was 鈥渧oluminous and likely to increase in the normal course as trial approaches."
鈥淭he Court finds that the interests of justice served by this continuance outweigh the best interest of the public and Defendants in a speedy trial,鈥 Cannon wrote.
In a statement referring to the Department of Justice, the Trump campaign called Cannon's order 鈥渁 major setback to the DOJ鈥檚 crusade to deny President Trump a fair legal process. The extensive schedule allows President Trump and his legal team to continue fighting this empty hoax.鈥
Trump could yet face additional trials in the coming year. He that he had received a letter informing him that he was a target of a separate Justice Department investigation into efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, an indication that charges could be coming soon.
The target letter referred to multiple distinct statutes Trump could be charged with violating, including conspiracy to defraud the government, according to a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss private correspondence.
Trump's new lawyer in that investigation, John Lauro, told Fox News on Friday that prosecutors appeared to be accusing Trump of 鈥渟ome kind of effort to obstruct" the Jan. 6, 2021, counting of state electoral votes and 鈥渨hether or not President Trump intimidated anyone or ballot stuffed.鈥 He said Trump would not be appearing before a grand jury because 鈥渉e did absolutely nothing wrong.鈥
鈥淗e鈥檚 done nothing criminal,鈥 Lauro said. 鈥淎nd he鈥檚 made his case that he was entitled to take these positions as president of the United States. When he saw all these election discrepancies and irregularities going on, he did what any president was required to do because he took an oath to do exactly that.鈥 Multiple judges appointed by Trump and Trump鈥檚 own attorney general said there was no evidence of widespread fraud that could have affected the outcome of the election.
Prosecutors in Georgia, meanwhile, plan to announce charging decisions within weeks in an investigation into attempts by Trump and his allies to subvert the vote in that state.
The trial before Cannon would take place in a federal courthouse in Fort Pierce.
It arises from a 38-count indictment last month, , that accused Trump of willfully hoarding classified documents, including top secret records, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach and conspiring with his valet, to hide them from investigators who demanded them back.
Trump and Nauta have both pleaded not guilty.
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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.
