(RepublicanJournal.org) – Former president Donald Trump is having a challenging year. He’s trying to juggle the commitments of running an election campaign and fighting the multiple legal challenges he’s facing. However, now he has some good news for a change. The strongest case against him was due to go to trial in late May. Now, it’s been indefinitely postponed.
Documents Case Is Tricky for Trump
On June 8, 2023, a grand jury convened by Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump and his valet Walt Nauga on multiple counts. On July 27, that was superseded by a new indictment, leaving Trump facing a total of 40 counts of violating the 1917 Espionage Act by wilful retention of national defense information, making false statements, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Trump was arraigned on June 13 and pleaded not guilty to all counts.
There’s no doubt Trump did have official documents stored at his Mar-A-Lago home, and the way they were stored was completely illegal if the papers were still classified at their original level. However, Trump argues that an unidentified law says presidents have the right to take any documents they want when they leave office, and that doing so makes the documents unclassified.
He also cited the 1978 Presidential Records Act as giving him the authority to take documents, although it actually says any documents created by presidents or VPs have to be handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration when their administration ends. Overall, of all the cases brought against Trump, this is the one where there’s actual strong evidence against him.
Federal Judge Postpones Trial
However, there’s no saying when — or even if — Trump will face these charges. The trial was originally scheduled to begin on May 20. Then, on May 7, US District Judge Aileen Cannon vacated the trial date and didn’t set a new one. Instead, she ordered a new set of pretrial proceedings, which will run to July 22.
In her order, Judge Cannon said it would be “imprudent” to set a trial date right now because many pretrial issues haven’t been solved yet. This is good news for Trump. His legal team has already been asking Cannon to reschedule the trial for sometime after November’s presidential election. She hasn’t done this yet, but an indefinite postponement certainly makes it more likely — and Trump’s lawyers will do whatever they can to delay her setting a new date.
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