Aileen Cannon Buys Donald Trump More Time

Judge Aileen Cannon is on track to buy former President Donald Trump some more time before he has to go to trial for the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

Cannon issued a new order on Thursday, denying Special Counsel Jack Smith‘s request for the judge to set a deadline for Trump’s team to disclose to prosecutors what information the defense intends to use at trial.

Cannon said that all deadlines related to Section 5 of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which requires the defense to provide the Justice Department with a narrowed-down list of information from discovery, would be set during the conference scheduled for March 1, 2024. The Department of Justice declined to comment.

If the CIPA deadline is not set until March, legal experts say it’s highly unlikely that the trial begin on the tentative May 20, 2024 date. Trump’s team has pushed for that trial date, as well as the one in his three other criminal cases, to be pushed until after Election Day.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek this was “bad news for prosectors” because if Trump, who is currently the GOP frontrunner, is elected term, “he can’t be prosecuted.”

Even if the CIPA deadline is set for May, there are several hearings that follow so that the government can contest the relevance or admissibility of the evidence. Because that hearing could be followed by other motions, that process can take months. This means that a starting point in May is almost certain to push a trial until after the 2024 election.

“The further that Judge Cannon extends deadlines for pre-trial motions, the more pressure is placed on the May 2024 trial date. And when Judge Cannon says she will reassess the trial calendar in March, you can bet this trial will get postponed,” Dave Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach County, told Newsweek.

Aronberg said on X, formerly Twitter, that this means “the strongest criminal case against Trump is also the least likely to go to trial before the 2024 election.” Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance agreed that the order would likely push the trial until after November 5, 2024.

Cannon’s latest order comes after the judge agreed to keep the May trial date just a week ago, writing that she wanted to still ensure “the public’s right to a speedy trial.” Her earlier decision to keep the date had been a win for the Justice Department, which has sought to get the trial underway as soon as possible despite setbacks from Cannon.

Cannon, a Trump appointee, has faced fierce criticisms for being partial to Trump in the civil case related to the classified documents matter. She has received numerous calls from those in the legal community to recuse herself from the former president’s Florida case.

Attorney Andrew Weissmann renewed those calls on Thursday, saying Smith needed to take a bolder stance in getting Cannon taken off the case.

“Judge Cannon’s bias is showing over and over again,” Weissmann tweeted. “Smith has to be weighing whether, when, and how to seek her reversal by the [Court] of Appeals and her removal.”

Legal analyst Lisa Rubin explained that Cannon’s new order signals she’d likely push the trial date months down the road because a revised schedule wouldn’t be set until the May conference.

“By that point, however, Trump will be three days away from the opening of the DC federal election interference trial, which itself could bleed into May,” Rubins said. “I’ll predict now that the date for the classified docs trial will slip away like, well, a Trump-held classified doc.”

Trump’s trial in the federal election interference is expected to begin March 4, 2023, a day before Super Tuesday. His New York trial in the case related to the hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels is set for March 25, 2024.

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