NY hush money trial: President Trump uses money trial to delay criminal proceedings

CNN
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Special Counsel Jack Smith told the federal judge overseeing President Donald Trump’s classified documents case that he will use his first criminal trial, scheduled to begin Monday in New York, to bring more serious federal charges to a jury. He said the former president’s attempts to delay the trial should be rejected. Florida.

In President Trump’s latest effort to take advantage of a conflict in court dates, the would-be 2024 Republican nominee on Saturday told U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon that he has access to classified government information held in his custody. They requested that the deadline for reviewing confidential evidence in a criminal case involving mismanagement be postponed to May. his Mar-a-Lago estate;

Lawyers said in a filing that Trump cannot meet the deadline because he is on trial on state charges in Manhattan. The trial over allegations that President Trump falsified his business records to conceal hush-money payments to cover up an alleged affair with an adult film star before the 2016 presidential election could last into June. There is.

But Trump and his chief defense attorneys, Todd Blanche and Emile Bove, cannot be in two places at the same time, they said.

“President Trump has a constitutional right to be present at trial in New York and, as a result, cannot participate in this critical portion of the defense,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a filing with Cannon. I wrote it down.

Mr. Smith countered in a court filing Sunday evening that Mr. Trump has a constitutional right to a lawyer, but that right is not unlimited.

Smith said Trump’s lawyers had enough time to prepare to meet the May 9 deadline for reviewing classified documents in the federal documents case. Smith also pointed out that Trump has local lawyers in Florida who can continue to review classified materials while the hush money trial in New York is underway.

“Every time the court sets a new deadline for this case and tries to move it forward to trial, defendants reflexively ask for a postponement. That has to stop,” Smith said.

When the former president’s legal team steps into a Manhattan courtroom on Monday, work on the Mar-a-Lago documents case will come to an almost complete halt. The classified documents case has stalled in Florida federal court, and Trump’s legal team has already spent significantly less time investigating the criminal case over the past six weeks.

Cannon, who is overseeing the case, has not yet set a trial date, has few other scheduled deadlines, and there are still unresolved legal disputes.

Additionally, the sensitive nature of the information in this case makes it difficult for attorneys to continue working outside of Florida. The next stage of the work will involve extensive discussions between Trump and his legal team at a secure facility in a remote area of ​​Fort Pierce, Florida, a person familiar with Trump’s legal team said.

In Saturday’s filing, Trump’s lawyers wrote that meeting deadlines for reviewing evidence “will require lengthy confidential submissions and extensive time at the SCIF to prepare and argue those submissions.” But President Trump and his lawyers will not be given any of that time during the trial.” Coming soon in New York. ”

Federal prosecutors in the special counsel’s office are also trying to keep up the pressure on the Florida case, saying they believe Trump’s team should already be preparing arguments over classified records in the defense case. This was revealed to Mr. Cannon.

Prosecutor Jay Blatt said at a hearing in March that “they had access to classified information for months, and they were deeply ingrained in it,” adding that the dispute over classified documents was “not clear at trial. “This will lead to whether or not we can present the case in the same way,” he added.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers said in a filing Saturday that the special counsel’s office “disagreed” with the request to extend the deadline.

This story has been updated with additional developments.