Trump asks for delay in documents case
Cites conflict caused by NY hush money trial
FORT PIERCE — As jury selection for Donald Trump’s New York hush-money trial began, so too did the latest scuffle between prosecutors and the former president’s legal team over the timing of his classified documents trial in Florida.
Trump asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to push back an upcoming disclosure deadline by more than two months in order for his attorneys to give their attention to the proceedings in New York. There, he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records over an alleged hush-money scheme involving the adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The May 9 deadline in question is the attorneys’ last day to disclose all expert witnesses and classified information they expect to introduce during the classified documents trial — disclosures that Trump says will require more than a week to prepare and can only be done inside a specialized room for viewing classified material, known as a SCIF, in Florida.
“President Trump has a constitutional right to be present at the trial in New York and, as a result, cannot participate in this work relating to important parts of his defense,” wrote attorney Todd Blanche. “Neither President Trump nor his counsel can be in both places at once.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith called the request “plainly wrong” in a response filed Sunday. Arguing that Trump’s team had more than enough time to do the work they now claim they can’t, Smith said Blanche’s argument “strains credibility and belies their true objective: delay.”
He urged Cannon not to let Trump’s team use their overlapping engagements perpetually to delay the trial, which has already been postponed from its original date and is poised to be delayed again soon.
Smith noted that it was Trump’s decision to hire the same attorneys to represent him across numerous cases, despite the challenges the cases’ colliding schedules would pose. Blanche forestalled that point in his own motion, reminding Cannon of Trump’s constitutional rights to participate in his defense and to employ lawyers of his choice.
Even so, Trump has local attorneys representing him in the classified documents case who are not involved in the hush money trial in New York. Smith suggested that those attorneys can finish any remaining work, but Blanche disagreed with that point, too.
He wrote that Trump attorney Emil Bove, who serves alongside Blanche as Trump’s lead counsel in the New York trial, is the one principally responsible for all classified litigation in the classified documents case. Subbing out his guidance for another’s would be “unjust.”
Smith urged the judge to dismiss the motion, which he said raised no new points from the numerous other motions Cannon has already denied.
“Each time the Court sets a new deadline in this case and attempts to keep it moving toward trial, the defendants reflexively ask for an adjournment,” he wrote. “That must stop.”
Cannon did not immediately rule on the motion. She has yet to rule on several outstanding issues, including numerous motions to dismiss the case and and a joint motion to reschedule the trial, which is currently set to begin in late May.