Whenever former President Donald Trump makes his way back home from New York to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, the U.S. Government’s criminal case against him for allegedly mishandling classified documents still awaits in nearby Fort Pierce.
Although U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has indefinitely postponed the trial date, the pretrial administration of the case continues with a busy calendar of pretrial hearings scheduled in June and July. Also during that time frame, the former president is scheduled to be sentenced after a Manhattan state court jury found him guilty Thursday on 34 counts of falsifying business records in a bid to conceal a hush money payment to a p*rn star before the 2016 presidential election.
In a televised appearance late Thursday evening on CNN, Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney in both the classified documents case and the New York State records prosecution, acknowledged the scheduled federal court hearings that lie ahead in the Southern District of Florida and declared his legal team will be present to participate in them.
“We are going to start fighting every day in Florida,” Blanche told CNN interviewer Kaitlan Collins shortly after the Manhattan jury found Trump guilty in the so-called “hush money case.”
“I am going to Florida next week,” Blanche said. “We have a motion to compel hearing in the case at the end of June. We have a lot of work to do. We haven’t been working on that case for the past six weeks.”
Heavy schedule ahead
Trump’s legal team faces a thicket of logistical challenges as they navigate a heavy schedule of hearings in the Florida case while preparing for Trump’s sentencing in New York, which is set for July 11. The trial judge. Acting New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, has asked the defense and prosecution teams to file pre-sentencing papers by June 13. At some juncture, Trump will be interviewed by a probation officer for a pre-sentencing report.
Blanche noted in the interview that the defense team initially will file post-trial legal motions in New York.
“If that is not successful, as soon as we can appeal, we will,” Blanche said. “The process in New York is the sentencing and then we appeal from there.”
Asked if he believes his client would receive jail time, Blanche replied, “I have no idea.”
Legal experts doubt Trump will end up behind bars while the case is on appeal as he has not been viewed by the judge or prosecutors as a flight risk or danger to the community.
“I don’t think there is any doubt he will remain outside of custody,” said Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorney Richard Serafini, a former Justice Department senior trial attorney in its criminal division. “He’s not going anywhere. There is virtually no chance he is going to be incarcerated pending appeal.”
In the Florida case, Trump stands charged in a 40-count superseding indictment with mishandling classified documents related to national security after he left office in January 2021. Among other things, he is alleged to have shown documents to people who were not authorized to view them.
Two of his employees, personal valet Waltine Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, are accused of helping Trump impede the return of documents to federal law enforcement agents who sought to retrieve the materials from the Palm Beach estate.
All three men have pleaded not guilty.
Trump has also pleaded not guilty to the U.S. Government’s election interference case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting the documents case as well. The election case is also on hold pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on whether Trump had immunity against criminal prosecution for his actions in January 2021.
The former president also faces state election interference allegations in Georgia — charges he also denies.
Although Thursday’s conviction in New York State has no legal bearing on the two federal cases and the election case in Georgia, Trump’s lawyers have successfully delayed all three by raising a wide array of legal issues through motions to dismiss.
In Florida, Judge Cannon has yet to rule on more than a half-dozen such motions, giving rise to the heavy legal calendar now on her court docket for June. Among other things, the defense has raised allegations of vindictive prosecution, violations of attorney-client privilege, and an illegal search of Mar-a-Lago for documents by FBI agents.
Slow pretrial pace
For months, Smith’s prosecutors and the defense team led by Blanche have been bogged down in disputes over how classified documents in the case should be handled at trial.
Questions over their handling, under what is known as the Classified Information Procedures Act, are what prompted Cannon to postpone the May 20 trial date she set last year until some unspecified time.
“The Court … determines that finalization of a trial date at this juncture — before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and CIPA issues remaining and forthcoming — would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court, critical CIPA issues, and additional pretrial and trial preparations necessary to present this case to a jury,” Cannon wrote in a recent order that also pushed back the case’s entire pretrial schedule.
“The Court therefore vacates the current May 20, 2024, trial date (and associated calendar call), to be reset by separate order following resolution of the matters before the Court, consistent with Defendants’ right to due process and the public’s interest in the fair and efficient administration of justice,” she wrote.
Timetable of New York, Florida court actions
Unless Judge Cannon chooses to again revise the hearing schedule, here is a snapshot of what the next months look like, according to court files and open court announcements. This list does not include filing deadlines for motions.
- June 21: In Fort Pierce, a non-evidentiary hearing will be held before Judge Aileen Cannon on a defense motion to dismiss the indictment based on alleged unauthorized appointment and funding of special counsel.
- June 24-26: Also in Fort Pierce, a pretrial evidentiary hearing will take place on the defendants’ consolidated motions to compel discovery and to define cope of prosecution team.
- July 11: In New York, former President Donald Trump is to be sentenced by Judge Juan Merchan.
- July 22: A morning status conference in the documents case; a closed afternoon hearing regarding classified materials.
- Unscheduled: Date for start of trial.
