Special counsel Jack Smith requested a four-month delay to the trial of former President Donald Trump. Smith’s request to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon would result in the trial not beginning until at least Dec. 11.
Smith said that starting the trial at the originally-planned Aug. 14 date “would deny counsel for the defendant or the attorney for the Government the reasonable time necessary for effective preparation.”
Smith referenced concern about the time necessary for Trump’s legal team to receive security clearance to review purported evidence.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, in charge of the Department of Justice's case against former President Donald Trump regarding his handling of classified documents, filed a motion to move the trial date from August to December. https://t.co/yYONkM1Fk8
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The former president’s legal team did not object to the trial date change.
The special counsel said that it could take up to 60 days for Trump’s attorneys to receive security clearance to view alleged classified documents.
Smith argued that “the inclusion of additional time for defense counsel to review and digest the discovery, to make their own decisions about any production to the government, and for the government to review the same, is reasonable and appropriate.”
The requested pause came just days after Cannon set the preliminary court date.
A potential delay to the start of the trial was predicted by legal expert Alan Dershowitz earlier this month.
The civil rights attorney also argued that the trial should be televised.
He told Fox News that the trial was “testing the Constitution.”
Dershowitz said that the American public has “a right to see Trump’s face, the judge’s face.”
“Let’s make our own judgment, so we don’t have to evaluate the case through the prism of often biased reporting,” he said.
“The framers of the Constitution wanted it as open as possible,” Dershowitz said. “Obviously, they allowed journalists to come in and townsfolk to come in to watch trials. I think we have to have this trial on television.”
The former president faces 37 felony counts based on allegations of handling classified documents.
The former president told Fox News in a recent interview that he wanted “to go through the boxes and get my personal things out.”
“And I was very busy as you’ve sort of seen,” Trump said.
