Donald Trump’s trial in the classified documents case will begin on May 20 next year

Miami:

A US judge on Friday ordered Donald Trump’s trial for mishandling top secret documents to begin next May, at the height of what is expected to be a bitter and divisive presidential election campaign.

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon set the start of the jury trial of the former president — the first ever to face criminal charges — on May 20, 2024.

Prosecutors had asked for the trial to begin in December this year, while Trump’s lawyers had asked for it to be held after the November 2024 election.

Cannon said she was preparing to start the trial in May to give both sides time to process more than 1.1 million pages of documentary evidence and meet the challenge of dealing with the classified documents at the heart of the case.

“Nobody disagrees that defendants need enough time to review and evaluate it on their own,” said Cannon, a Trump appointee.

Trump, 77, is the clear front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, and the process will begin near the end of the primary campaign to select the party’s nominee.

The trial won’t stop the former reality TV star from campaigning, but as a criminal defendant he must be present during the proceedings, which are expected to take weeks, if not months.

Trump pleaded not guilty to dozens of criminal counts last month for allegedly mishandling some of the administration’s most sensitive secrets and plans to prevent their return.

Trump faces 37 criminal counts for his refusal to hand over government records he brought with him when he left the White House in 2021.

According to the indictment of special counsel Jack Smith, the former president took hundreds of classified documents in cardboard boxes to his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

Trump kept the files — which included data from the Pentagon, CIA and National Security Agency — unsecured at Mar-a-Lago, which regularly hosted large social events, the indictment said.

The documents were stashed in several locations on the estate, including a ballroom, a bathroom, Trump’s bedroom and a storage room.

— Trump aide also indicted —

Trump faces 31 counts of “intentional retention of national defense information” related to specific documents. Each conviction carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

Other charges include: conspiracy to obstruct justice, punishable by up to 20 years in prison; withholding a document or record, which also carries a prison term of 20 years; and make false statements.

Waltine “Walt” Nauta, a 40-year veteran of the U.S. Navy from Guam and a personal aide to Trump, faces six counts of helping Trump hide documents at Mar-a-Lago. He also pleaded not guilty.

Nauta served as Trump’s military valet while he was president and continued to work for him in a personal capacity after he left the White House.

Trump, who was impeached twice over allegations of misconduct while in office and recently found liable for sexual assault, has vowed to stay in the 2024 White House race regardless of the outcome of the documents case.

Trump faces other legal troubles, including a looming indictment from Smith over the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump also faces multiple felony charges in a New York fraud case involving alleged hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)