Judge postpones Trump's classified documents trial
By Sam Cabral
A judge has indefinitely postponed Donald Trump’s federal trial in Florida over his alleged mishandling of classified documents while in office.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon said that setting a trial date before resolving significant questions over trial evidence would be “imprudent”.
Her court order on Tuesday cancelled the 20 May 2024 start date she had previously set for the proceedings.
The trial is now unlikely to begin before the 5 November US election.
Mr Trump’s lawyers have proposed that the trial be held after his presidential rematch with Joe Biden, his successor in the White House. Prosecutors meanwhile have pushed for it to take place this year.
But the 20 May date set by Judge Cannon appeared less and less likely to hold amid slow-moving deliberations over multiple pre-trial issues.
The former president is accused of keeping top-secret documents in his possession after leaving office, rather than returning them to the National Archives as prescribed by law.
