On Friday, a federal judge set the trial of Donald Trump for his handling of state secrets in May next year, in the midst of the 2024 presidential primaries, in which the former US president is running.
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The trial will begin in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida, on May 20, 2024, Judge Eileen Cannon said, to allow the parties time to review a thick file of about 1.1 million pages.
“No one disputes that the defense will need sufficient time to review and evaluate the case,” the judge appointed by President Trump wrote in her ruling.
This will be the first federal criminal trial ever involving a former president of the United States.
Prosecutors had called for the trial to begin in December, while defense lawyers had called for a trial after the November 2024 presidential election.
Therefore, it will take place at the end of the Republican primary campaign, which should nominate the candidate who is most likely to face Democrat Joe Biden in November 2024, and who, according to opinion polls, is Donald Trump (77 years old).
The trial will not prevent the billionaire from campaigning, but as a defendant he may be forced to be physically present at the hearings, which could last for weeks if not months.
Donald Trump, who was indicted in mid-June on 37 counts, including “unlawful retention of national security information,” “obstruction of justice” and “perjury,” has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Miami.
The former Republican president is accused of endangering the security of the United States by keeping classified documents, including military plans or information related to nuclear weapons, in a bathroom or storage room in his luxury home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, instead of turning them over to the National Archives.
However, the 1978 law required all US presidents to send all of their emails, letters, and other business documents to the National Archives. Another law, on espionage, prohibited keeping state secrets in unauthorized and unsecured places.
The case, which led the FBI to search his residence in Mar-a-Lago, revealed his bluntness about state secrets and his ability to change rules and conventions.
According to the indictment, the boxes were kept stacked here and there, mainly on a “ballroom” stage, in a bedroom or office, before being moved to a “storage room” accessible from the swimming pool, where some documents marked “Secret Defense” were seen scattered on the floor.
Walt Nauta, former personal assistant to Donald Trump, accused of complicity in negligent management of state secrets after the former Republican president left the White House in January 2021, also pleaded not guilty in this case.
This is not the only legal problem for the former tenant of the White House.
He was personally targeted in the federal investigation into the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol in Washington, and charged in the Stormy Daniels case, in connection with making a payment in 2016 to the X-film actress to conceal an alleged relationship.
Georgia’s attorney general must announce by September the outcome of her investigation into his lobbying effort to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
