Breaking News: Court postpones Trump’s documents trial indefinitely

Trump has one less legal worry – at least for now: the trial over the secret files he took from the White House has been postponed until further notice. Observers had previously accused the judge of dragging out the proceedings.

The official start of the trial against former US President Donald Trump in the affair surrounding the taking of secret government documents has been postponed indefinitely. The previously planned start of the trial on May 20th has been cancelled, the responsible judge Aileen Cannon announced in a letter. The reason for this are open legal questions. It is therefore unlikely that the process will begin before the presidential election in November.

The decision is a success for the Republican, who is keen to delay the start of the trial as much as possible. The 77-year-old wants to move back into the White House after the presidential election. Trump currently has to answer before a court in New York in connection with hush money payments to a porn actress and is therefore spending many hours in the courtroom.

Trump was indicted at the federal level in the documents affair last year. In this case, he is accused of illegally storing highly sensitive information from his time as president (2017 to 2021). In August 2022, the FBI federal police searched Trump’s villa in Florida and confiscated several sets of documents classified as top secret. Trump is also accused of conspiring to obstruct the investigation: He is said to have tried to have material disappear from surveillance cameras and have boxes of documents taken away with the help of employees.

Trump appointed the judge himself

Trump pleaded not guilty at the arraignment in Miami last year. His lawyers are trying to avert the proceedings. Among other things, they rely on Trump’s immunity as president. They argue that keeping the documents as personal records was an official act of the president. “President Trump is entitled to immunity for this official act, and this must include immunity from criminal prosecution,” they wrote in a motion.

Judge Cannon, who is responsible for the documents process, was once appointed by Trump. Critics accuse her of dragging out the process and processing applications in slow motion. As justification for postponing the start of the trial, Cannon wrote that setting a trial date at this point would be “ill-advised.” There are too many open legal questions that still need to be clarified. It would take appropriate preparation and time to treat this fully and fairly in order to present this case to a jury.

Lawyers argue Trump’s immunity

In total, Trump is facing four criminal proceedings against him in the election year: In addition to the trial in the documents affair and the hush money case in New York, there is also an election fraud trial at the federal level and another in the US state of Georgia.

Trump’s lawyers are also relying on presidential immunity in the federal election fraud case and are trying to stop the process. The US Supreme Court has accepted Trump’s appeal in this case and is currently considering the central question of his immunity from prosecution. A decision is expected in a few weeks. This is also likely to have an impact on most other criminal proceedings against Trump.

Trump, who wants to become president again, regularly describes the investigations against him as a “political witch hunt” and portrays himself as a victim of the justice system. So far, the investigations against him have not harmed Trump in polls. This could change if the Republican were convicted by a jury before the election. He therefore uses legal maneuvers to try to delay the various proceedings against him as much as possible.