Trump gets new trial date in Mar-a-Lago classified documents case

Prosecutors have requested a December trial date for Donald Trump in connection with the classified materials discovered at Mar-a-Lago, claiming that the new date will allow the former president’s legal team to gain the requisite security clearance to read the records.

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The trial date was tentatively set for August by the judge presiding over the case, Aileen Cannon, on Tuesday.

She stated at the time that she was open to change requests.

The office of Jack Smith, the special counsel handling the probe, sought a start date of December 11 on Friday.

They claimed it would give Trump’s legal team enough time to secure the security clearances needed to view the confidential documents.

Smith, in the filing, said the August 14 date set by Cannon was too soon, and ‘would deny counsel for the defendant or the attorney for the Government the reasonable time necessary for effective preparation.’

He added: ‘This case is not so unusual or complex … because it has only two defendants, involves straightforward theories of liability, and does not present novel questions of fact or law. However, the case does involve classified information and will necessitate defense counsel obtaining the requisite security clearances,’ prosecutors wrote in the filing.

‘In addition, the associated legal process under the Classified Information Procedures Act will inject additional time into the leadup to trial that otherwise would not be involved.’

Trump’s team is yet to respond to the request.

Smith’s office also provided Trump and his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, with a list of 84 people with whom they cannot discuss the matter on Friday.

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If they do, they may be found in contempt of court and incarcerated.

Trump, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, was arraigned in federal court in Miami last week and pleaded not guilty to 37 charges that he unlawfully kept national security documents when he left office and lied to officials who tried to recover them.

The case will have to follow a tight and thorough set of standards outlined in the secret Information Procedures Act, which tries to protect secret evidence and control how such data can be exposed.