By Donald Trump asked a judge to delay his criminal classified documents trial in Florida from May until after the November 2024 presidential election, saying prosecutors are dragging their feet in sharing evidence with his lawyers.
Trump’s attorneys in a Wednesday night court filing also said prosecutors have “demanded a conflicting schedule” in special counsel Jack Smith’s other federal criminal case against the former president, in Washington, D.C.
Trump is charged in D.C. with illegally conspiring to reverse his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden. That case is set to begin trial in early March.
The dueling schedules “currently require President Trump and his lawyers to be in two places at once,” defense lawyers complained.
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Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is charged in Florida with crimes related to his retention of classified government records after he left the White House in January 2021, and his efforts to keep those documents from officials when their return was sought.
His lawyers in their filing said Smith is still “clinging to an unprecedented and now untenable” schedule in the case.
“The demands of the Special Counsel’s Office must give way to the constitutional rights of
the defendants and the interests of judicial economy,” the defense lawyers wrote.
A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.
