The trial of Donald Trump for his negligent management of confidential documents after his departure from the White House will begin on May 20, 2024, the judge in charge of the case announced on Friday July 21. The trial will begin in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon said.
Donald Trump’s lawyers had declined to set a date, but said any trial should take place after the November 2024 presidential election, when their client is the current frontrunner in the Republican nomination race. Judge Cannon did not follow the requisitions of federal prosecutors, who had asked her to schedule the trial in December. The trial will be held in the middle of the primary campaign for the presidential election, for which Donald Trump is a candidate.
Charged in mid-June with 37 counts including “illegal withholding of information relating to national security”, “obstructing justice” and “false testimony”, Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in federal court in Miami.
Leaving the White House, the former US president took with him entire boxes of documents. However, a law of 1978 obliges any American president to transmit all of his e-mails, letters and other working documents to the national archives.
Donald Trump must also appear on March 25 in a Manhattan court, in the case of the payment made by his former lawyer to the actress of X films Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign.
The former president also said on Tuesday that he had received a letter informing him that he was under investigation into his efforts to reverse the result of the November 2020 presidential election lost to his Democratic rival Joe Biden.