Donald Trump on Monday called for a lengthy delay before he goes to trial for allegedly hoarding military secrets at his Mar-a-Lago estate, contending that proceeding while he remains a candidate for president would make it virtually impossible to seat an impartial jury.
“Proceeding to trial during the pendency of a Presidential election cycle wherein opposing candidates are effectively (if not literally) directly adverse to one another in this action will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process and limit the Defendants’ ability to secure a fair and impartial adjudication,” attorneys for Trump and his personal aide and co-defendant, Walt Nauta, said in a court filing Monday night.
Trump’s eagerness to push off a trial sets up the first significant test in the unprecedented, ultra-high-profile case for U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who is already weighing special counsel Jack Smith’s push for a December 2023 trial, one his team says is strongly in the public interest to begin as soon as possible.
The defense filing says bluntly that this December is too soon to start a trial and urges Cannon not to set a trial date now, but makes clear that Trump’s lawyers oppose any trial that would start during the presidential election season, which will get underway in earnest late this year. Assuming Trump wins the Republican nomination, the defense position appears to urge nearly a year of delay beyond what prosecutors are proposing.
