WASHINGTON — The federal judge in Florida presiding over the classified documents prosecution of former President Donald Trump has canceled the May 20 trial date, postponing it indefinitely.
The order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon had been expected in light of still-unresolved issues in the case and because Trump is currently on trial in a separate case in Manhattan charging him in connection with hush money payments during the 2016 presidential election. The New York case involves several of the same lawyers representing him in the federal case in Florida.
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Cannon said in a five-page order Tuesday that it would be “imprudent” to finalize a new trial date now, casting further doubt on federal prosecutors' ability to bring Trump to trial before the November presidential election.
Trump faces dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida classified documents that he took with him after he left the White House in 2021, and then obstructing the FBI's efforts to get them back. He has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Former President Donald Trump, followed by his attorney Todd Blanche, walks to speak to reporters following the day's proceedings in his trial, Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in New York.
Trump faces four criminal cases as he seeks to reclaim the White House, but outside of the New York prosecution, it's not clear that any of the other three will reach trial before the election.
The Supreme Court is weighing Trump’s arguments that he is immune from federal prosecution in a separate case from special counsel Jack Smith charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia have also brought a separate case related to election subversion, though it's not clear when that might reach trial.
Photos: Trump indictment shows documents stacked in bathroom, bedroom, ballroom
Boxes of records are stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., seen in this image contained in an indictment charging him with 37 felonies related to the mishandling of classified documents. The indictment paints an unmistakably damning portrait of Trump’s treatment of sensitive information, accusing him of willfully defying Justice Department demands to return documents he had taken from the White House, enlisting aides in his efforts to hide the records and even telling his lawyers he wanted to defy a subpoena for the materials stored in his estate.
This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records on Dec. 7, 2021, in a storage room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., that had fallen over with contents spilling onto the floor. Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to an indictment unsealed Friday, June 9, 2023.
This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records being stored on the stage in the White and Gold Ballroom at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to an indictment unsealed Friday, June 9, 2023.
This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records that had been stored in the Lake Room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., after they were moved to a storage room on June 24, 2021.
This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and partially redacted by the source, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8, 2022, FBI search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records that had been stored in the Lake Room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., after they were moved to a storage room on June 24, 2021.
Boxes of records seen in a storage room at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., that were photographed on Nov. 12, 2021.
Pages from the affidavit by the FBI in support of obtaining a search warrant for former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate are photographed Aug. 26, 2022. U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the Justice Department to make public a redacted version of the affidavit it relied on when federal agents searched Trump's estate to look for classified documents.
A page from a FBI property list of items seized from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate and made public by the Department of Justice, are photographed Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. FBI agents who searched the home found empty folders marked with classified banners. The inventory reveals in general terms the contents of the 33 boxes taken during the Aug. 8 search.
Pages from a FBI property list of items seized from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate and made public by the Department of Justice, are photographed Sept. 2, 2022.
The indictment against former President Donald Trump is photographed on Friday, June 9, 2023. Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to the unsealed indictment that also alleges that he improperly shared a Pentagon "plan of attack" and a classified map related to a military operation.
The indictment against former President Donald Trump is photographed on Friday, June 9, 2023. Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the mishandling of classified documents according to the unsealed indictment that also alleges that he improperly shared a Pentagon "plan of attack" and a classified map related to a military operation.
