Special counsel Jack Smith continues pressing the Florida Judge, Aileen Cannon, to grant his request for speedy trial in a classified documents case against former President Trump and two of his employees.
Smith’s office’s new filing
Smith’s filing from the last week of December says, “In its July 21 Order Granting in Part Government’s Motion to Continue Trial and Resetting Deadlines (ECF No. 83), the Court excluded all of the time between the date of that Order and the trial date of May 20, 2024.”
The “Speedy Trial clock”
It continued, “The Court confirmed that the same Speedy Trial clock applies to each defendant, that it has been tolled until May 20, 2024, and that 70 days remain on the Speedy Trial clock.”
Trump’s legal team is delaying
While the trial date is set, the filings from the former president continually present challenges, claiming there is not enough time for the legal team to review all the documents. But the prosecution already wrote in July, “There is no basis in law or fact for proceeding in such an indeterminate and open-ended fashion, and the Defendants provide none.”
There is no reason for a delay
“A speedy trial is a foundational requirement of the Constitution and the United States Code, not a Government preference that must be justified,” the filing said, adding, “Defendants’ claim that this Court could not select an impartial jury until after the presidential election does not justify further delay here.”
Trump’s team wants the trial to take place after the 2024 elections
While Trump’s legal team wants to push the trial past the 2024 elections, Smith’s filing reminded that Trump’s co-defendants, Walt Nauta, and Carlos de Oliveira, already have trial timelines in place. Prosecutors added that the pretrial has already tolled the speedy trial clock.
In legal terms
Under federal law, a speedy trial “must commence within 70 days from the date the information or indictment was filed, or from the date the defendant appears before an officer of the court in which the charge is pending.”
Trump’s team called pretrial producers “premature”
Regarding pretrial procedures, Trump’s legal team called the pretrial procedures, including formalizing a jury questionnaire, “premature.” Prosecutor Jay Bratt responded to Trump’s filing, calling it “long on rhetoric and baseless accusations that do not merit a response.”
Speedy trial is “economical”
Bratt added, “More to the point, defendants’ breathless castigation of the Government for suggesting the parties engage on jury questionnaires before resolution of pretrial motions ignores that the same was true in cases the Government cited in its motion.” The prosecutor reminded the court, “It is economical and a good use of time to begin the process of drafting a questionnaire now.”
Trump’s Florida case
Jack Smith was appointed as special counsel in November 2022. In June 2023, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he received a letter from the special counsel saying he was a target in their classified documents investigation.
The 40-count indictment
On June 9, Trump received a 37-count indictment alleging that he “willfully retained documents containing the nation’s most sensitive secrets, including nuclear programs, after he left office.” Later, three more charges were brought against the former president.
The audio recording
CNN obtained the audio recording from the 2021 meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey, where Trump reportedly discussed holding secret documents he did not declassify.
Trump pleaded not guilty
The former president said in an interview, “There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things.” He added, “I didn’t have a document, per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles.”
