The Trump team asked to delay the trial on the documents, citing the run of the election | Donald Trump news

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Donald Trump is too busy campaigning for the 2024 US election to prepare for trial, lawyers say, asking for an indefinite adjournment.

The legal team for former US President Donald Trump has asked to delay a criminal trial over his handling of classified documents, citing campaign conflicts leading up to the November 2024 presidential election.

In court filings late Monday, Trump’s lawyers cited the unusual nature of the federal case, in which Trump is accused of hoarding and hiding sensitive government documents he took when he left the White House, as well as obstructing subsequent FBI investigations.

Trump is the first current or former president in US history to face criminal charges. Beyond the federal charges he faces connected to the documents, he also faces New York state charges related to falsifying business records related to hush payments made over a porn star.

The government’s request to begin a trial of this magnitude within six months of the indictment is unreasonable, he says, and would result in a miscarriage of justice, said the document filed by Chris Kise, one of Trump’s lawyers in the case. of documents. The trial date is currently set for August 14.

Attorneys cited challenges in selecting jurors and concerns about whether Trump will get a fair trial before the November 2024 election. Attorneys called the current court date unrealistic.

The government’s investigation continued for more than a year before charges were filed, lawyers argued, and during that time authorities collected hundreds of thousands of documents, interviewed dozens of witnesses, and presented numerous witnesses before two separate Grand Juries. The defendants need time to review those materials, and to decide whether they need to request anything further, the court document said.

Because the evidence includes classified documents, procedures need to be put in place to handle them.

The filing does not suggest a new date, but the Trumps’ lawyers said that the date previously proposed by federal prosecutors of December 11 of this year is also untenable, since Trump is the likely nominee of the Republican Party. in the November 2024 presidential election and campaigning requires an enormous amount of time and energy.

In addition, the Trumps co-defendant Waltine Walt Nautas work requires him to be at his bosss side during the campaign and this makes trial preparation for both accused challenging.

Polls show Trump far and away ahead in a crowded Republican field, leading his closest challenger Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by nearly 30 percentage points, according to a national polling average kept by FiveThirtyEight. If those trends remain the same in subsequent Republican primary years it is far from certain that Trump will again face Democratic President Joe Biden in the general election, as he did in 2020.

Trump’s legal troubles have taken US politics into uncharted territory. Under the US Constitution, criminal charges and even convictions cannot prevent a candidate from running or winning a presidential race.

The logistics, however, remain more complex and raise unprecedented questions. Both trials are all but certain to require Trump to spend time in court, potentially limiting his ability to campaign. If he is convicted and sentenced to prison time, he can still legally run from behind bars.

The trial in New York state, where Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, is currently set for March 25, 2024. Trump’s lawyers are seeking to move the venue, arguing that the former president would not receive a fair trial in liberal-leaning Manhattan.

In the federal case, Trump faces 37 felony charges. His aide, Walt Nauta, also faces six felony counts related to the investigation of the documents. Both men have pleaded not guilty, with Trump making his first appearance in federal court in Miami, Florida on June 13.

Recently, the defense and prosecutors filed papers asking that a preliminary hearing on how the trial handle classified documents be delayed by a week in a hearing scheduled for Friday.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing in both criminal proceedings, and has accused the prosecution in both cases of seeking to derail his presidential ambitions.

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