This week, Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, chilled Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request to speed up the sharing of classified documents.
On Monday, Smith had asked the court for a classified protective order ahead of a hearing in the case. The motion was denied without prejudice by the judge.
The prosecutors representing Smith had requested that access be limited to President Trump regarding these materials related to the case.
This comes as no surprise. Trump has been indicted on 37 federal counts by Smith in Miami. These charges include 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information and 6 other process crimes allegedly stemming from conversations he held with his lawyer.
Alongside Trump is Walt Nauta, a Mar-a-Lago aide who has been charged as a co-conspirator in this case.
The trial date set by Judge Cannon was scheduled for August 14th but President Trump’s legal team has asked to indefinitely postpone.
Justice Department lawyers on Thursday filed a motion pushing back on Trump’s legal team and asked the Judge to proceed with jury selection on December 11, 2023.
The New York Post reported:
A federal judge handed a defeat to prosecutors who indicted former President Donald Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified documents, denying a request Tuesday to speed up the sharing of evidence with the defense.
Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed without prejudice special counsel Jack Smith’s motion to compel a response from Trump’s legal team about a protective order for disclosing classified evidence in the case, court filings show, with the jurist citing a “lack of meaningful conferral” between the two sides.
Prosecutors Jay Bratt, David Harbach and Julie Edelstein appeared in the courtroom opposite Trump attorneys Christopher Kise, Todd Blanche and Stanley Woodward, who is representing the former president’s valet Walt Nauta.
