Judge convenes initial session following postponing Trump's trial on classified documents and commenting negatively on special counsel.
Judge Aileen Cannon is set to listen to arguments from defense lawyers regarding two separate requests to dismiss charges in the case. In the first motion, Trump's former valet and co-accused Walt Nauta claims he is being unfairly targeted, while in the second, Trump and his co-defendants argue the indictment has technical issues that warrant its dismissal.
Trump is accused by special prosecutor Jack Smith of taking classified defense documents from the White House post-presidency and refusing to cooperate with the government's efforts to recover the materials. Trump, Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago's property manager Carlos De Oliveira have all pleaded not guilty.
Trump has been granted permission by the judge to miss Wednesday's court proceedings, scheduled for 10 a.m. ET in the Fort Pierce, Florida court.
This court hearing is the first before the judge since she indefinitely postponed the trial, which had been set to start as early as this week. Almost a month has passed since the judge last held a public, in-person hearing in the case, although there has been at least one sealed proceeding since then.
Delaying the trial, Cannon cited the overwhelming number of yet-to-be-resolved pre-trial issues for not setting a new date. Between Wednesday and late July, a series of hearings are planned to address some, but not all, of the pretrial issues.
Cannon's slow handling of the case has garnered criticism from legal experts, who accuse the Trump-appointed judge of supporting delay tactics employed by the Republican nominee for the White House. Without a significant increase in the judge's pace, it seems unlikely the charges against Trump will reach a jury before the 2024 election. If Trump wins the presidency, it is presumed he will put an end to the charges against him.
Freshly unsealed papers provide more details about the investigation
Previously, several crucial motions from Trump attacking the prosecution were not even publicly recorded. The case has been plagued with disputes over what should be redacted in public documents.
On Tuesday, hundreds of pages of concealed court documents were made public as part of Trump's attempts to drop the charges against him. These filings included a March 2023 ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., stating there was "sufficient" evidence suggesting Trump committed crimes, allowing investigators to access information from his former attorney that would typically be shielded by attorney-client privilege.
Trump is attempting to get rid of this evidence, as well as the evidence gathered in the FBI's August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, where investigators obtained many of the documents underlying several of the charges against Trump.
These motions are not planned for argument on Wednesday, and Cannon has not yet scheduled a hearing on them.
In her order on Sunday permitting the filings to be made public, Cannon criticized the special counsel's office - with whom she has made several jabs before. She expressed "concern" that the special counsel's office had asked for redactions of information in the newly unsealed filings, despite earlier approving their full publication in other court filings.
“The Court is disappointed in these occurrences. The sealing and redaction rules should be applied consistently and fairly based on a reasonable justification,” Cannon wrote. “And parties should not make requests that contradict previous representations or positions without divulging this to the Court and providing proper arguments.”
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Source: edition.cnn.com
