Donald Trump trial over Mar-a-Lago documents to go ahead next May

Former US president Donald Trump fails to get Mar-a-Lago documents case postponed until after 2024 election.

Donald Trump has continued to tell supporters he is innocent of any crimes and the victim of a conspiracy against him. Picture: Miami Herald/Zuma Press/The Times

Donald Trump will go on trial next May for keeping hundreds of classified documents at his Florida home, six months before the presidential election in which he is expected to challenge President Joe Biden for the White House.

The former president, 77, had asked the judge in the case, Aileen Cannon, to postpone the hearing until after the election. He has pleaded not guilty to 37 felony charges related to the secret papers, some of which come under the Espionage Act. If convicted, Trump faces the prospect of decades in prison.

It is not clear how long a trial may last, but by May the Republican primary season will be almost over and a presidential candidate is likely to already have been selected. It would be before the candidate was officially confirmed in August next year. A May trial could interfere with Trump’s campaign plans.

Boxes of documents were found at Trump’s Florida resort, including in a ballroom. Picture: EPA/The Times

Cannon was appointed as a federal judge by Trump and delayed the investigation last year when she ruled that some of the documents seized by the FBI at Trump’s Florida home could not be used in evidence. The decision was later overturned by an appeals court.

Trump is the only former president to have been charged with federal offences. A decision to indict him in another federal case – over his role in the riots at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 – is expected imminently after being investigated by the special prosecutor Jack Smith.

If the secret papers trial goes ahead next May, it would follow close on the heels of a separate trial over the alleged falsifying of business records. Trump is accused of doing so to cover up hush money payments handed to the retired adult film star Stormy Daniels.

The Times