Delay until after US election?
Trump’s lawyers are playing for time in a document affair
7/11/2023, 7:18 p.m
Donald Trump is accused of taking home secret government documents. In court, his lawyers are trying to get a stay of the trial. The ex-president’s team may have the elections next year in mind.
The lawyers for former US President Donald Trump want to delay the start of the trial in the affair about his handling of secret government documents. In a letter submitted to the competent court, they requested a postponement of the start of the trial. The case was “unusual” and “complex” and it was “almost impossible” to prepare for the trial until December this year. For its part, the US Department of Justice had requested a stay until December 11, 2023, after the court had previously set August 14.
As a reason, Trump’s lawyers referred, among other things, to the numerous documents that had been collected for the investigation and now have to be checked. They also stated that Trump is running for the Republican nomination for the presidential election in November 2024. “This undertaking requires a tremendous investment of time and energy,” the letter said.
The timing of the start of the process is anything but trivial, particularly in light of the presidential election. If the trial is even delayed until after the election and Trump wins, he could seek to pardon himself as president or have the charges against him dropped.
Trump was indicted at the federal level in June for storing top-secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida property and failing to return them when requested. At the beginning of August 2022, the Federal Police FBI searched Trump’s villa and confiscated several sets of documents classified as top secret. The Republican pleaded not guilty at a court hearing in Miami in June.