Judge scheduled to address Trump trial date for mishandling confidential documents at hearing Friday

EFE

Judge Aileen Cannon is expected to address the trial date against former U.S. President Donald Trump in a new hearing in Florida this Friday for the mishandling of confidential documents found in his possession after leaving the White House.

The lawyers for the former president, who faces a total of four criminal cases in the United States, have requested that the trial be postponed until August, while the prosecution requested it to start from July 8.

For now, the process is scheduled to begin on May 20 in a court in Fort Pierce, about 200 kilometers north of Miami, before Judge Cannon, who was nominated in 2020 by Trump.

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It is expected that Trump, who will likely be the Republican candidate in the upcoming November presidential elections, will appear at the hearing this Friday.

If he appears, this would be the second time the former president has done so in less than a month in the courts of Fort Pierce.

On February 12, he attended a closed-door hearing before Cannon, where a series of protection orders related to classified information contained in the records seized at Trump's residence in Palm Beach were discussed.

The judge will also address issues such as trial preparations, matters that could delay its scheduling.

Among the issues to be addressed by federal lawyers, defense attorneys, and prosecutors are points of contention related to the "proposed wording of highly classified documents" in the case and hearings on "immunity and alleged misconduct" by the prosecutor, according to the cited source.

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The scheduling of these hearings could delay the start of the trial until after the November elections this year. The former Republican president is facing justice in Florida for taking classified material to his Mar-a-Lago mansion when he left the White House in January 2021.

Trump must answer in court to 91 criminal charges against him, spread across four criminal cases, including the one related to the 2021 Capitol riot by his supporters when they tried to disrupt the legislative process to certify Biden's victory in 2020.

Additionally, in New York, he faces charges for alleged irregular payments to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels.