Brian Snyder / REUTERS
This decision removes the likelihood that the former American president will be tried before the November presidential election in this case where he concealed files classified as “defense secrets” after the end of his mandate.
A Florida court has postponed indefinitely the start of the criminal trial of former US President Donald Trump, accused of having made negligent use of classified documents, according to a decision rendered Tuesday, May 7. The trial in this case of the Republican presidential candidate in November was supposed to open on May 20, but the federal judge considered this date untenable due to the number of preliminary requests presented to the court. Aileen Cannon, a magistrate appointed by the former president, has not set a new date. The decision is a setback for special prosecutor Jack Smith and makes a trial in the case before the November election highly unlikely.
The Republican presidential candidate is currently on trial in New York in another case, that concerning suspicious payments before the 2016 presidential election. In the Florida case, Donald Trump is being prosecuted along with two of his personal assistants for his management of classified documents at his private residence in Mar-a-Lago, located in this southeastern state, after his departure from the White House in January 2021. He is accused of having compromised national security by keeping there these documents, including military plans or information on nuclear weapons, instead of handing them over to the National Archives as required by law. He is also accused of attempting to destroy evidence in the case. The heaviest charges are punishable by 10 years in prison.
His lawyers have increased their appeals to delay the holding of a trial in this case. Targeted by four separate criminal proceedings, including the one for which he has been appearing since April 15 in New York, Donald Trump repeatedly denounces a “witch hunt” hatched by the Democratic administration to eliminate him from the presidential race. If he were elected again, he could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order the abandonment of the two federal proceedings against him: this case investigated in Florida, as well as that carried out in the capital Washington for accusations of illegal attempts to reverse the results of the presidential election won by Joe Biden in 2020.
