Special Counsel Jack Smith at the federal Justice Department, who is handling two active criminal cases against former President Donald Trump, is proposing that trial in one of these cases start in July — which would put the ex-president on trial before the general election in this year’s presidential race. The specific date that the federal prosecutors proposed is July 8.
Smith’s team made the filing in their case accusing Trump and two co-defendants of the mishandling of government documents and an obstruction scheme perpetrated amid the government’s extensive investigations. Trump’s the one facing a raft of charges specific to individual documents allegedly retained by the former president in violation of the law.
The proposed schedule from Smith would get something moving in the face of continued delays in the other federal case against Trump, which relates to his post-2020 election attempts to stay in power despite losing the race to Joe Biden. The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear further arguments on Trump’s claims of wide-ranging legal protections that the ex-president says should shut down even the possibility of the case, extending even further the schedule ahead of getting back to potential trial. Trial was originally scheduled for March but was put on hold amid Trump’s continuing appeals.
It was unclear in the immediate aftermath of Smith’s team making this scheduling proposal if it or something close would actually come to fruition. The matter is before federal Judge Aileen Cannon, who has faced some criticism amid her handling of Trump-related legal matters, including concerns in reference to her original nomination for the federal judiciary by Trump himself when he was still the president. The defense proposed a schedule that would put Trump on trial in August… suggesting, since that’s also before this year’s presidential election, that the proceedings will happen in that period.
Trump is scheduled to face his first criminal trial at the end of this month in New York City on allegations from local prosecutors of falsifying business records in relation to hush money from before the 2016 elections.
