Attorneys for former President Donald Trump have once again asked a judge to push back the date of his trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents until after the 2024 election.
They cited the Republican frontrunner’s crowded legal schedule, delays in discovery and difficulties reviewing the classified documents at the center of the case. Trump’s attorneys noted the two federal case schedules “currently require President Trump and his lawyers to be in two places at once.”
“Clinging to an unprecedented and now untenable trial date, the [Special Counsel’s Office] presses the Court to continue with an accelerated schedule that the prosecutors have not followed,” Trump attorneys Christopher Kise and Todd Blanche wrote in their latest scheduling motion.
They asked for a mid-November 2024 trial date, just after the Nov. 5 election next year.
Trump’s attorneys said they haven’t had a place to review the classified documents in the case.
“Copies of the classified discovery have not been transported to the Miramar facility, which we also understand has not yet been approved for review and storage of the classified discovery,” they wrote. “This, along with the fact that the defense only has access to a small, temporary facility in Miami, has delayed President Trump’s personal review of the classified discovery under procedures that the Court approved.”
Kise and Blanche also said Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team hasn’t provided them with discovery materials so they can prepare for trial.
“These are not mere ‘complaints.’ The Special Counsel’s Office has not provided some of the most basic discovery in the case,” they wrote. “Given the current schedule, we cannot understate the prejudice to President Trump arising from his lack of access to these critical materials months after they should have been produced.”
Trump, 77, is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president. He faces legal challenges across the country as he seeks the GOP nomination, including four criminal cases, two of which were filed in federal court by special counsel Jack Smith.
In June, Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 counts that allege he kept sensitive military documents, shared them with people who didn’t have security clearance, and tried to thwart the government’s efforts to get them back. In August, Trump’s attorneys entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf to additional charges in the documents case. Charges in a superseding indictment allege Trump attempted to delete surveillance video at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
