The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s classified documents case, Judge Aileen Cannon, has refused to delay pre-trial deadlines for the former president’s legal team. Cannon, who was nominated by Trump, has faced criticism for favoring the former president, including those that could delay the start of the trial. Trump, the expected 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has also faced accusations that he is hoping to delay the federal classified documents trial until after November’s election in the hopes that if he wins the race, he could demand the Department of Justice drop the case once he enters office.
Lawyers for Trump recently asked Cannon to extend a deadline for filing evidentiary motions, but Cannon rejected the request. The deadline to file pre-trial motions remains February 22, 2024, and the Court will consider such arguments as appropriate if events post-dating February 22, 2024, clearly justify additional pre-trial briefing.
Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, argued that judges should look at decisions like a good referee and not worry about make-up calls. Cannon recently gave Trump’s team a boost by allowing them to receive unredacted FBI witnesses’ reports as part of the classified documents case, despite Smith’s objections. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 federal charges over allegations he illegally retained classified and top secret materials after leaving office in January 2021 and obstructed federal attempts to retrieve them from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
