His trial, which will therefore be held in the heart of the primaries for the 2024 presidential election for which he is a candidate. A federal judge on Friday set Donald Trump’s trial for his handling of state secrets for May of next year.
The trial will begin in federal court in Fort Pierce, Fla., on May 20, 2024, Judge Aileen Cannon said, to allow the parties time to review a thick filing of nearly 1.1 million pages.
The first federal criminal trial against a US president
“No one disputes that the defense will need sufficient time to review and assess the case,” the judge, appointed by President Trump, wrote in her ruling.
This will be the first ever federal criminal trial involving a former President of the United States. Prosecutors had called for the trial to begin in December, while defense lawyers argued for a trial after the November 2024 presidential election.
It will therefore take place towards the end of the Republican primary campaign which must nominate the candidate who will most likely face Democrat Joe Biden in November 2024, and for which Donald Trump, 77, is the big favorite according to the polls.
The trial will not prevent the billionaire from campaigning but as an accused he may be forced to be physically present at the hearings, which could last weeks if not months.
37 charges against the former head of state
Charged in mid-June with 37 counts including “illegal withholding of information relating to national security”, “obstructing justice” and “false testimony”, Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in federal court in Miami.
The former Republican president is accused of putting the security of the United States at risk by keeping confidential documents, including military plans or information on nuclear weapons, in a bathroom or storage room of his luxury residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, instead of handing them over to the National Archives.
However, a 1978 law obliges all American presidents to transmit all of their e-mails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives. Another law, on espionage, prohibits keeping state secrets in unauthorized and unsecured places.
Documents “secret defense” stored in a storage room
The case, which had led the federal police (FBI) to search his Mar-a-Lago residence, had revealed his lightness vis-à-vis state secrets and his ability to shake up rules and conventions.
According to the indictment, the boxes remained stacked here and there, in particular on the stage of a “ballroom”, in a bedroom or an office, before being transported to a “storeroom” accessible from the swimming pool, where certain documents marked with the mention “secret defense” were seen spread out on the ground.
A former personal assistant to Donald Trump, Walt Nauta, charged with complicity in the negligent handling of state secrets after the former Republican president’s departure from the White House in January 2021, has also pleaded not guilty in this case.
2023-07-21 16:44:00
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