A U.S. federal judge in Florida on Tuesday set August 14 for the start of the trial of former President Donald Trump on charges he mishandled classified national security documents when his presidency ended. Legal analysts say the complexity of the case could easily delay the first-ever criminal trial of a U.S. leader.
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, in announcing the 37-count indictment against Trump two weeks ago, called for a "speedy trial," but Trump has yet to hire a full legal defense team in the southern state of Florida where Judge Aileen Cannon presides, and the trial would occur.
In her order, Cannon, a 42-year-old jurist appointed to the federal bench by Trump shortly after his 2020 reelection loss, told Justice Department prosecutors and Trump's lawyers to file all pre-trial motions by July 24.
Last week, she directed the lawyers involved in the case to start filling out a federal government document to secure security clearances so they can view the classified documents that Trump kept at his oceanside Mar-a-Lago estate.
Because of the complexity of the case, numerous legal analysts have predicted the trial won't start for a year, and possibly not until after the November 2024 presidential election. Trump, according to national polling, is the leading Republican contender for the party's presidential nomination.
Trump was required by U.S. law to turn his presidential documents over to the National Archives when his four-year term ended in early 2021, but he did not, and aides say he often referred to them as "my papers."
Last week, at his arraignment in Miami, he pleaded not guilty to the criminal allegations.
The indictment alleges that Trump illegally retained 31 documents that "…included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack."
As his presidency ended on January 20 two years ago, the indictment said, "Trump was not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents." At various times, the indictment alleges that Trump stored boxes of the documents in a bathroom and shower stall at Mar-a-Lago, on a ballroom stage, and in a bedroom, an office and a storage room.
As a former president, Trump could have sought a waiver of the requirement that only people with a "need to know" could continue to retain and look at the documents, but the indictment said that the former president "did not obtain any such waiver after his presidency."
The 37-count indictment against Trump also alleges that the country's 45th president conspired with a personal aide, Walt Nauta, to hide the documents from Trump's attorney, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the grand jury that was hearing evidence in the case. Nauta faces six charges.
Among the other charges, Trump is accused of making false statements to investigators and ordered that boxes be moved to various locations at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida so that his lawyer would not be able to locate all the documents that federal authorities had subpoenaed.
In two instances, the indictment alleged that Trump displayed a couple of the classified documents in front of people without security clearances.
But in an interview with Fox News on Monday, Trump said that in one of the instances cited in the indictment, he was holding news articles, not classified material.
"There was no document," Trump said. "That was a massive amount of papers talking about Iran and other things."
