Feb. 29 (UPI) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump reluctantly suggested an August start date for his federal trial on charges of mishandling classified documents while continuing to argue that such offenses can not be tested in court this year.
The former president’s legal team has been trying to delay his pending four federal trials, but in response to Friday’s order by Judge Aileen Cannon directing parties in the classified documents case to submit scheduling proposals, they offered Aug. 12 as a start date for the trials of Trump and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, who has been charged in the case.
For co-defendant Walt Nauta, Trump’s assistant, the lawyers put forth Sept. 9.
While offering the dates, Trump’s team maintained in the filing that their client, as the leading Republican candidate in November’s general election, “strongly asserts that a fair trial cannot be conducted this year.” They say it is inconsistent with the Constitution while accusing the government of “seeking to rush this case to trial.”
In the government’s response to Cannon’s order, special counsel Jack Smith requested a trial date of July 8 for all three of the defendants, with expectations that such a trial would end before the Nov. 5 vote.
Trump, who is facing four criminal trials, has made attempts to delay the trials, including that of the classified documents, which was scheduled to start on May 20, for as long as possible.
He has argued that he is shielded from the charges by presidential immunity.
That argument, presented in his election interference case, was thrown out by a lower court and then an appeals panel, but the Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to take it up, which could further impact the start of the classified documents case.
On Friday, his legal team filed a slew of motions to dismiss the classified documents case on the grounds their client has presidential immunity, that the Espionage Act he is charged under is constitutionally vague, that Special Counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed and that the former president’s possession of the records was permitted by the Presidential Records Act.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to 37 felony charges, including more than 30 violations of the Espionage Act, after an FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida produced boxes of classified documents he retained from his time in the White House.