Prosecutors have asked for a December trial over the Mar-a-Lago classified documents for Donald Trump, saying the new date would give the former president’s legal team time to obtain the security clearance needed to view the documents.
The judge overseeing the case, Eileen Cannon, on Tuesday tentatively set an August trial date.
He said at the time that he was open to requests to change it.
On Friday, the office of Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the investigation, requested a Dec. 11 opening.
They said that would give Trump’s legal team enough time to obtain the security clearance needed to access classified documents.
Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the prosecution of Donald Trump, requested a December 11 trial on Friday for mishandling classified documents.
Smith, in the filing, said the Aug. 14 date set by Canon was too soon and would ‘deny counsel for the defendant or attorney for the government the reasonable time necessary for effective preparation.’
He added: ‘This case is not so unusual or complex … because there are only two defendants, it involves straightforward theories of liability, and does not present novel questions of fact or law. However, the case involves classified information and will require defense counsel to obtain the necessary security clearances,’ prosecutors wrote in the filing.
‘Furthermore, the associated legal proceedings under the Classified Information Procedures Act will inject additional time into leading the trial which would not otherwise be involved.’
Trump’s team has not yet responded to the request.
Smith’s office on Friday gave Trump and his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, a list of 84 names with whom they could not discuss the case.
If they do, they can be held in contempt of court or even detained.
Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president in the 2024 election, was sentenced in federal court in Miami last week, pleading not guilty to 37 charges that he illegally kept national security documents when he left office and lied to officials to retrieve them. .
The case must proceed under a strict and meticulous set of rules, outlined in a law known as the Classified Information Procedures Act, which aims to protect classified evidence and govern how such records can be disclosed.
Smith set a schedule until the start of proposed jury selection on Dec. 11, which included a Sept. 5 deadline for all defense discovery requests.
He said Trump’s lawyers do not oppose canceling the Aug. 14 trial start date, but he expects them to file a motion opposing the prosecution’s proposed schedule.
Friday’s filing is part of routine trial preparations.
Earlier this week, the government turned over copies of taped interviews Trump gave.
The government shared the information as part of the discovery process.
The government’s 37-count indictment is quoted directly from an interview Trump conducted at his Bedminster, New Jersey club with the author and publisher of former chief of staff Mark Meadows’ book.
The conversations contain key information that Trump described as classified when discussing plans to attack Iran.
According to the government’s response to the court’s discovery order, prosecutors ‘produced interviews of defendant Trump conducted by private agencies, which were recorded with his consent and obtained by the Office of Special Counsel during its investigation of the case, including on July 21. , a 2021 recorded interview defendant Trump gave to a publisher and author cited in the indictment.’
Prosecutors Provide Lawyers With ‘Interviews’ Of Former President Donald Trump Conducted With ‘Private Firms’
It does not otherwise provide information about the content of the interview, or whether it came from a traditional media entity.
Prosecutors also turned over “public statements made by defendant Trump, including public statements cited in the indictment.”
It follows claims by legal experts that Trump admitted key facts in the case during a Fox News interview in which he defended his conduct even as he said he had the documents at home, in a media tour in which he repeatedly blasted the government investigation. A ‘witch hunt.’
When asked in the interview why he had not turned over the documents the government was requesting, Trump responded that he was too busy.
‘I had the box,’ she said.
‘I want to go through the box and take out my personal things. I don’t want to hand it over [the Archives] yet. And I’ve been very busy as you see.’
The filing also lists witnesses for the government who will testify at trial.
And it said Trump’s lawyers could contact prosecutors to arrange inspection of unclassified items seized at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022, during FBI searches of the president’s home and private golf club.
Both parties are engaged in the discovery process, in which prosecutors must share evidence they have gathered on the defendant. Information about alleged co-conspirator Walt Nauter has not yet been shared
The feds plan to use Trump’s own public statements as evidence
Trump did not speak to the federal grand jury that handed up the 37-count indictment.
His longtime body man and associate Walt Nauta did, however. Some of his statements are included in the indictment, which accuses Trump of willfully withholding national security information and accuses the pair of conspiring to withhold information from a grand jury and the FBI.
Prosecutors also turned over Nauta’s May 26 interview to the FBI and his June 21 testimony before the grand jury.
Nauta is scheduled for next week.
Trump pleaded not guilty to his own charges in Miami, then went to Bedminster and blasted prosecutors in a speech.
Prosecutors also said they would reveal any promises of immunity or leniency – following a Newstimesuk.com report that it may be too late for Nauta to try to ‘overturn’ Trump and reach a cooperation deal with the government.
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