US: Trump’s Florida lawsuit over classified documents postponed indefinitely

A federal court in Florida on Tuesday postponed for an indefinite period the start of the criminal trial of former US President Donald Trump in the event that he is accused of negligently using classified documents, reports AFP.

In this criminal case, one of the four in which he is concerned, a trial was to be opened on May 20. But the federal judge considered this date to be unsustainable due to the number of preliminary requests presented to the court.

Aileen Cannon, magistrate appointed by the former president, did not set a new date. This decision is a setback for Special Prosecutor Jack Smith and makes it highly unlikely that a trial will take place in the case before the November election.

The Republican presidential candidate is currently on trial in New York in another case involving suspicious payments before the 2016 presidential election.

In the Florida case, Donald Trump is being prosecuted along with two of his personal assistants for keeping classified documents at his private residence in Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House in January 2021. He is accused of compromising national security by keeping these documents, which included military plans or information on nuclear weapons, instead of handing them over to the National Archives, as required by law.

Donald Trump is also accused of trying to destroy evidence in this case. The most serious charges are punishable by up to ten years in prison.

His lawyers have multiplied their appeals to postpone a trial in this case.

Targeted by four separate criminal proceedings, including the one for which he is appearing on trial on April 15 in New York, Donald Trump repeatedly denounces a “witch hunt” organized by the Democratic administration to remove him from the presidential race.

If he were elected again, Donald Trump could, after the inauguration ceremony in January 2025, order the abandonment of the two federal proceedings against him: the case investigated in Florida, as well as the one carried out in the capital of Washington for accusations of illegal attempts to modify the results of the presidential election won by Joe Biden in 2020.

(Agerpress)