Cannon has scheduled a July 14 hearing on the handling of classified materials in the Trump Mar-a-Lago documents case

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CNN —

The first hearing for Donald Trump and the special counsel’s office before Judge Aileen Cannon in the case of the Mar-a-Lago documents is in Fort Pierce, Florida, on July 14.

The hearing is set to discuss pre-trial issues of classification, with Cannon on Monday granting a request from special counsel Jack Smith that he hold the hearing under the Classified Information Procedures Act.

Trump and his co-defendant Walt Nauta are not required to attend the hearing, according to the new court order, although it is the first time their defense teams are scheduled to appear before Cannon.

Additionally, Cannon on Monday ordered that the defendants respond by July 6 to the special counsel’s request to delay the trial until December.

According to the Friday filing from Smith’s team requesting the delay, the defendants’ lawyers confirmed that they do not object to the postponement of the current trial date and requested a status hearing in Court to meet the schedule in this action, while defense lawyers are expected to file an opposition to this motion addressing their objections to the government’s proposed dates.

Cannon had previously set the trial to begin in mid-August, but it was widely expected that the start date would be pushed back.

Trump faces charges of willfully withholding national defense information, obstruction, and making false statements in a federal investigation into his White House’s handling of classified documents. He is not guilty. Nauta, who faces charges related to obstruction, is scheduled for an arraignment on Tuesday, where he will have the opportunity to enter his plea.

The scheduling orders from Cannon came shortly after he denied a request from Smith’s team to file under seal a list of witnesses with whom Trump cannot speak about the case. of classified documents.

While Cannon didn’t raise any problems with the restriction, his new order seemed to question why filing the list in the docket was necessary in the first place. The judge also said prosecutors did not provide sufficient reasoning why the list, if filed in court, should be kept entirely under seal.

The Governments Motion does not explain why the filing of the list with the Court is necessary; it does not offer a specific basis to justify sealing the list from public view; it does not explain why partial binding, redaction, or methods other than binding are unavailable or unsatisfactory; and it did not specify the duration of any proposed seal, Cannon said in his order.

Media organizations, including CNN, have argued in court filings that the list should be made public.

In his new order, Cannon rejects the government’s bid to file the list without bias meaning prosecutors can make the request again. He also said that a request by media organizations to intervene to argue for more transparency was rejected as moot.

Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman, who presided over Trumps arraignment earlier this month, raised the issue of banning Trump from discussing the case with certain witnesses even though prosecutors had not sought such a restriction as a condition for upon Trump’s release from custody.

After a back-and-forth with Trumps attorney, Goodman ordered the special counsels team to come up with a list of witnesses whom Trump should be barred from speaking about the case, except through their attorneys.

According to a court filing from the special counsel on Friday, the defense said there is no position on the government’s motion to seal the witness list, but the defense has the right to object to the special condition and the manner in which it was done. implemented by the government by providing a list of 84 witnesses in purported compliance with the court order.

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