Attorney asks to delay Trump’s trial on Mar-a-Lago documents until December | International

Special counsel Jack Smith, who is handling the case, has said that an August 14 hearing on former President Donald Trump over the classified Mar-a-Lago documents is not a realistic goal. Smith asked Judge Eileen Cannon, who is in charge of the case, to adjourn the case until December. According to him, the necessary steps will take several months before opening the oral hearing.

The lawyer presented his request along with other motions before the judge. He is requesting that the hearing be scheduled for next December 11 as part of the evidence is classified documents and special permission is required to access them. This authorization process takes time, which the attorney estimates to be between 45 and 60 days. With that alone, the time fixed by the judge will be practically consumed and there will be no time to raise other preliminary issues.

August 14 was already a mere symbol. Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, aggressively sets a date and then pushes it back as needed. If the hearing is postponed, it will happen closer to the primary elections in which the Republican Party will choose its nominee for the 2024 presidential election.

Prosecutors have charged Trump with 37 charges, including 31 counts of illegal possession of documents critical to national security, and others of obstruction of justice, conspiracy and perjury.

Along with the request to delay the trial, attorney Smith is asking the judge to establish rules regarding classified evidence, namely how it can be admitted and used at trial and what access Trump’s lawyers can be given. Some of the documents deal with the military capabilities of third countries, including nuclear power, while others deal with U.S. operations, some with the U.S.’s own nuclear arsenal, according to a brief description included in the statement of charges. However, its exact content is unknown. The lawyer is also asking that the list of witnesses he seeks to bar Donald Trump from speaking, except through lawyers, be kept secret.

On the other hand, if the investigation into the Mar-A-Lago documents is delayed, there is no longer a risk that the date will overlap with a new potential indictment of Trump in Atlanta for election meddling in the 2020 presidential election. State of Georgia. In what appeared to be a pre-announcement of a possible indictment, Fulton County Attorney Fannie Willis sent a letter to the presiding judge of the county Superior Court last month. Asking judges not to schedule hearings and hearings on days and part-time hearings during the first three weeks of August.

Other investigation

In parallel, special counsel Smith continues to investigate Trump’s efforts to cling to power and avoid Joe Biden’s clear victory in the 2020 presidential election, in which he led the former president by seven million popular votes. or electoral votes.

Smith explores efforts to build caucuses to support him and represent states that lost elections by low margins, such as Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada. Local media have revealed that the prosecutor’s office is in contact with Michael Roman, one of the people in charge of the 2020 Trump campaign, who will voluntarily testify in the case, possibly in exchange for at least partial immunity.

Prosecutors have already presented evidence and testimony to the grand jury about the plan to create those false voter rolls to replace legal voters. The aim is to overturn the election results to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory on January 6, 2021, and prevent a transfer of power. Trump’s refusal to accept his clear defeat was the genesis of the attack on the Capitol that day.

The House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol recommended trying Trump on four counts: inciting insurrection, conspiracy to commit perjury and defraud the United States, obstructing the official process of Congress, and voting to certify Biden’s victory.

The FBI has been investigating the fake voter registration scheme for more than a year. As part of the judicial investigation, those closest to Trump were tried before a grand jury, including his vice president, Mike Pence; His chief of staff was Mark Meadows and former White House legal chief Pat Cipollone. Pence managed to avoid testifying about his actions on the day of the Capitol storming. When subpoenaed, he alleged that he was exercising his role as president of the Senate on January 6 and was forced to testify, a violation of the so-called “disclosure or debate rule.”

The grand jury serves as a subsidiary and control body in the prosecutor’s office’s investigations. Approves quotes, requirements and estimates. You don’t have to decide guilt or innocence, just decide whether there is enough evidence for a crime. Reports and discussions are held behind closed doors. Unlike trial juries, which hear trial and argument, grand juries hear only the testimony and testimony of the prosecutor, giving him a distinct advantage.

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