Walt Nauta (L), a US Navy veteran and a White House military valet to former US president Donald Trump, and Stanley Woodward (R), lawyer, arrive on the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Constructing on July 06, 2023 in Miami, Florida.
Eva Marie Uzcategul | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump on Monday night asked a federal court to carry off on setting a date for the criminal trial over his handling of classified documents, arguing that the unprecedented case requires “a measured consideration and timeline.”
Attorneys for Trump and Walt Nauta, the previous president’s valet and co-defendant, also noted that it should be “difficult” for them to organize for a trial before the Nov. 5, 2024, presidential election, for which Trump is looking for the Republican nomination.
“There’s simply no doubt any trial of this motion through the pendency of a Presidential election will impact each the end result of that election and, importantly, the power of the Defendants to acquire a good trial,” the attorneys argued.
Their joint court filing in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida got here in response to the Department of Justice, which had already asked the court to delay the beginning of the trial by nearly 4 months to mid-December.
However the defense attorneys said that that proposed timeline was “unrealistic,” based on the amount of evidence and special circumstances surrounding the case alone.
Their 12-page filing recommend a slew of reasons to “postpone any consideration of a latest trial date.”
They said the case will involve significant legal questions — including one, the “intersection” between the costs against them and the Presidential Records Act, that has “never been addressed by any court.” Additionally they gestured toward the complexities of discussing classified material in a criminal trial and the potential difficulty of choosing a jury during a presidential election.
The attorneys also said they imagine the indictment against Trump and Nauta will ultimately be dismissed.
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, had initially scheduled the previous president’s criminal trial to start out on Aug. 14. Court watchers and legal experts widely expect that the trial can be postponed to a much later date to present the parties adequate time to organize.
Nauta had only recently pleaded not guilty to the six counts against him because his arraignment was twice delayed. Nauta is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding and corruptly concealing documents, and making false representations. Trump was arraigned weeks earlier, pleading not guilty to 37 criminal counts.
The sensitive material at the guts of the case could also lengthen the timeline. Because it centers on the highest secret documents stored at Trump’s residence, the case and eventual trial might want to adhere to the federal statute that governs how the proceedings will play out.
The Justice Department and Nauta’s lawyers had clashed earlier Monday about when a pre-trial hearing focused on that statute, called the Classified Information Procedures Act or CIPA, should happen. The DOJ opposed Nauta’s request to delay that hearing, which was set for Friday, arguing it was unnecessary.
In a subsequent filing Monday evening, Trump’s attorneys said that they had struck an agreement with the DOJ to carry the CIPA hearing Tuesday, July 18.
