U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has now announced the finalized date for former President Donald Trump’s trial, which is set on May 20, 2024.
Trump is facing 37 federal felony counts, and with the current trial date, he is going to need to deal with the legal case months before the Presidential election. Trump’s legal team had previously attempted to delay the trial further claiming that it should take place after the 2024 presidential election. Prosecutors on the other hand had requested that the trial start as early as this December.
Following the investigation of special counsel Jack Smith, Trump is facing 37 counts over his alleged mishandling of confidential documents after he left the White House in 2021, including charges of conspiring to obstruct justice, giving false statements, and willfully retaining national defense information.
If this date is not challenged, then the federal trial is likely going to take place on a date that is close to the separate New York Trial, where Trump is facing more than 30 charges for falsifying business records.
More importantly for Trump, the trial would be scheduled to take place at a date that is close to the end of the Republican presidential primary calendar. By the time of the trial, it will be known whether Trump or a different Republican candidate has won the GOP nomination. However, the trial will not take place before the official nomination of the candidate at the Republican National Convention.
Cannon in her decision for the new trial date wrote that the original trial date of December 11 which had been proposed by the Department of Justice was very accelerated and it would not allow for them to ensure that there is a fair trial.
