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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.
Washington – 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 canceled, the responsible judge Aileen Cannon announced in a letter on Tuesday (May 7th). The reason for this are still open legal questions. It is therefore unlikely that the process will start before the US presidential election in November.
Postponed for now: Official start of the trial against Donald Trump postponed until further notice
The decision is a success for the Republican as he tries to delay the possible start of the trial as much as possible. The 77-year-old wants to move back into the White House after the presidential election. Donald Trump currently also has to appear before a court in New York in connection with Hush money payments to a porn actress responsible. That’s why he regularly spends long hours in the courtroom. But this trial is not Trump’s only legal problem.
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.
Document affair involving former President Donald Trump: His lawyers are citing his immunity
Trump pleaded “not guilty” when the charges were presented in Miami in 2023. His lawyers are still trying to avert the proceedings. Among other things, Trump’s immunity as president is invoked. The argument: storing 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 a reason 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
Before the 2024 US election: Former President Donald Trump faces four criminal proceedings
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. In the presidential election in November, everything points to a new edition of the race between him and the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden there. So far, the investigations against him have not hurt 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. (dpa/han)
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