Donald Trump's Classified Documents Trial Is Postponed Indefinitely

The federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case announced Tuesday that she’s postponing the trial indefinitely.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, said in her ruling that the postponement was necessary to allow more time for discovery and other pretrial motions.

Committing to a trial start date “would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court,” Cannon wrote in her decision, which set a series of pretrial hearings, running through July 22.

She also pointed to the “complexity” and “unusual nature” of the case, even though many legal experts have said the case appears relatively straightforward.

Trump’s legal team has filed several motions to delay the trial or dismiss it altogether. On Monday, his lawyers called for the trial to be dismissed or delayed because some of the documents that FBI agents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida two years ago had gotten out of order, indicating that prosecutors may have improperly handled evidence.

Cannon has come under fire from critics for failing to set a firm trial date nearly a year after Trump was indicted on 40 felony charges. With Tuesday’s postponement, the trial is unlikely to wrap up before the November election, in which Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee for president.

Trump is currently in court in Manhattan for a trial related to payments made to an adult film star shortly before the 2016 election in order to keep her from speaking out about an alleged extramarital affair a decade earlier.

Trial dates have not been set in two other indictments concerning efforts to overturn the 2020 election he lost to President Joe Biden.