for: ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press
Published: Jul 21, 2023 / 09:55 am EDT
Updated: July 21, 2023 / 9:59 AM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge in Florida has set a trial date for next May for former President Donald Trump in a case accusing him of illegally withholding hundreds of classified documents.
The trial date of May 20, 2024, set Friday by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, is a compromise between a request by prosecutors to set the trial for December and an offer by defense attorneys to schedule- after the 2024 presidential elections.
If the date is met, it would close after a separate trial in New York by Trump on dozens of state charges of falsifying business records. It also means the trial won’t begin until well into the presidential nominating calendar, and likely long after the Republican nominee is clear, even before that person is officially nominated at the Republican National Convention.
Trump could still face additional trials next year. He disclosed this week that he had received a letter informing him that he was the target of a separate Justice Department investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and Georgia prosecutors plan to announce charging decisions in a few weeks into an investigation into Trump’s attempts. and their allies to subvert the vote there.
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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.
