Due to the former president’s hush-money prosecution, special counsel Jack Smith has retaliated against Donald Trump’s attempt to postpone disclosure deadlines in the latter’s case involving classified documents.
On Monday, jury selection will commence in New York for the hush-money prosecution of Donald Trump.
The crux of this case revolves around accusations that Trump fabricated internal company documents in order to obscure the nature of remuneration provided to his ex-attorney Michael Cohen.
Stormy Daniels, an adult actress, was allegedly bribed by Cohen to remain silent regarding an illicit affair she claimed to have had with Trump years prior. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump, is charged with 34 counts of business record falsification. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels and entered a not-guilty plea.
Trump is accused on forty felony counts in Florida of intentionally harboring dozens of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate subsequent to his departure from the White House, while also impeding government endeavors to retrieve them. Furthermore, he has exonerated himself of those allegations and entered a not-guilty plea.
The initial trial date for the case was May 20. Aileen Cannon, the judge, heard arguments regarding a new date last month but has yet to determine one. Cannon, an individual appointed by Trump, has faced censure regarding her decisions, which detractors contend were excessively favorable to Trump and granted him the opportunity to postpone the commencement of the trial.
The attorneys for Trump filed a motion on Saturday, requesting a postponement of the May 9 deadline for disclosure in the case, which Cannon had established earlier in April. The motion requested that it be rescheduled to occur three weeks subsequent to the conclusion of Trump’s trial in New York, which is anticipated to last approximately six weeks. Should Trump’s motion for a postponement be approved, the revised deadline might be in mid-July. Consequently, the case would not proceed to trial on July 8, as Smith has suggested.
Smith filed a response to the request for a postponement on Sunday.
“This Court set the May 9 deadline fully apprised of defendant Trump’s New York trial,” according to his application.
“Although the defendants’ motion reads as though the Court were unaware of Trump’s other case, and as if the defendants had no forewarning that a Section 5 deadline would be set, those premises are plainly wrong.”
Furthermore, he stated that the defendants “have already been granted months to complete the work and have been duly informed of the impending deadlines.”
Smith continued by stating that the assertion that Trump’s attorneys “need three additional weeks and the entirety of his New York trial to prepare their CIPA Section 5 notice and expert disclosure betrays their true purpose, which is to cause delay,” undermines credibility.
Smith argued that Trump is protected by local counsel who are well-versed in the case, possess the required security credentials, and are not engaged in the New York trial in order to “manage any remaining work on the submissions.”
“Each time the Court sets a new deadline in this case and attempts to keep it moving toward trial, the defendants reflexively ask for an adjournment,” said the judge.
“That should cease.” The motions filed by the defendants to extend the deadlines for expert witness disclosure and CIPA Section 5 notice until May 9 should be denied by the court.
The special counsel’s office and Trump’s attorneys have been emailed by Newsweek requesting comment.
