Trump again asks for Mar-a-Lago classified documents trial to be delayed until after Election Day

By Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump has once again asked to delay the trial in the classified documents case against him in Florida until after the 2024 elections, citing issues over access to classified material in the case.

The filing late Wednesday is at least the second explicit request to move the trial date by the Trump team until after the election. The former president also asked Judge Aileen Cannon in July to move the trial until after the 2024 presidential election.

For now, the case is set to go to trial in May 2024.

Trump’s attorneys have pushed repeatedly to delay motions schedules in the criminal case as well, raising complaints about their ability to review evidence, to write and argue complex legal motions, and the former president’s packed calendar from both campaign events and legal obligations in other cases brought against him.

In Wednesday’s filing, Trump’s attorneys wrote that “discovery failures” by special counsel Jack Smith’s office – both with Trump’s lack of access to certain classified material and alleged delays in his legal team’s access to witness statements – warrant pushing back the trial currently scheduled for May until “at least mid-November.”

Defense attorneys said in a court filing in July that “there is simply no question any trial of this action during the pendency of a Presidential election will impact both the outcome of that election and, importantly, the ability of the Defendants to obtain a fair trial.”

Cannon did not delay the trial date at that time.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.