Aileen Cannon Is Giving Donald Trump Exactly What He Wants

A Florida judge is to delay pretrial hearings in Donald Trump's upcoming classified documents trial, something his legal team has been seeking for months.

"I'm just having a hard time seeing how realistically this work can be accomplished in this compressed period of time, given the realities that we're facing," U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon said at a hearing on Wednesday.

The trial is due to begin on May 20, and Trump wants it delayed until after the 2024 election. If elected president, he is likely to seek to shut down the case.

Cannon said that, given all the legal complexity around the handling of the classified documents, she may not be able to keep to the schedule she set in July.

She said she'd set a new timeline "as soon as possible." Trump lawyers have been arguing for months over the disclosure of classified documents, which can only be viewed at special secure rooms set up in South Florida. The documents were taken from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, and his lawyers have a right to review the evidence found there.

Cannon, a Trump appointee, said she would make "reasonable adjustments" to the schedule—such as deadlines for pretrial filings—but did not say she planned to delay the trial date. However, any delay in the pretrial proceedings could lead to a postponement of the trial itself.

During Wednesday's court hearing, Trump's lawyers argued that they need a delay in the documents case because they also have to prepare for Trump's trial in Washington, D.C., for allegedly tampering with the 2020 presidential election.

That trial is expected to start on March 4.

Trump's indictment in the election case, which occurred days after Cannon set her initial timeline for the document case, "completely disrupted everything about the schedule your honor set," Trump lawyer Todd Blanche told Cannon.

"It's very difficult to be trying to work with a client in one trial and simultaneously try to prepare that client for another trial," another Trump attorney, Christopher Kise, told Cannon. "This has been a struggle and a challenge."

A prosecutor in the Florida case urged Cannon not to delay the case.

"The court really cannot let and should not let the D.C. trial drive the schedule here," said Justice Department prosecutor Jay Bratt. "We don't know what is going to happen in this case. We don't know what's going to happen in the D.C. case. That trial could disappear."

He said that Trump is trying to delay all of his criminal cases and that "it's not surprising" he is now seeking to delay the Florida case.

Cannon announced in October that Trump's trial will begin on May 20, 2024, in a Trump-leaning county to the north of the one where the documents were allegedly stored. Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith had sought a December 2023 trial date, and Trump's legal team had argued for a start after the November 2024 election.

The former president is charged with illegally retaining sensitive materials after he left the White House in January 2021 and of attempting to obstruct the federal attempt to retrieve the documents from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Trump has long denied all wrongdoing, frequently accusing the Biden administration of having "weaponized" the FBI and DOJ to try to hinder his 2024 presidential campaign. Trump is currently the frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination.

In October, Cannon accepted Trump's lawyers' submissions that the case should be designated "complex" under federal law, which may potentially place it on a longer timeline.

Also, in October, a former federal prosecutor said Trump is trying to delay his criminal trials so that he can exonerate himself if reelected president.

Former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara said that Trump likely has three ways to avoid his two federal trials, including pardoning himself, appointing a favorable attorney general or claiming federal immunity.

Speaking on his Spotify podcast, Stay Tuned With Preet, Bharara said that in the federal cases relating to election interference and hoarding classified documents, Trump could pardon himself when he becomes president. Bharara said this option would be litigated in court.