Judge Cannon Sets Aug. 14 Trial Date For Trump, Cackles And Cracks Knuckles

Allegedly! We assume.

This morning Judge Aileen Cannon announced that Donald Trump's trial in the documents case would take place on August 14, 2023, in her courtroom in Fort Pierce, Florida.

While she may be right about the location, Judge Cannon is almost certainly wrong about the date. The Southern District of Florida operates what's called a "rocket docket," where the rule dictates that a criminal trial or conviction must take place within 70 days of an indictment. In contrast, the US District Court in DC has a six month requirement. But in practice, federal judges routinely delay trials to accommodate motions and discovery disputes. This is certain to be the case here, not least because Trump is charged with 31 counts of violating the Espionage Act by willfully retaining national defense information.

That's 31 classified documents for which discovery procedures are handled under the Classified Information Protection Act (CIPA), an act governing the use of classified evidence at trial. The Washington Post has a good breakdown of how this will impact the case, but in brief, CIPA was passed in 1980 to solve the problem of "graymail," or criminal defendants threatening to reveal classified information on the witness stand. As national security law expert Kel McClanahan said (to me) on the Opening Arguments podcast, pre-CIPA the assumption was that classified evidence had to be admitted into the record, forcing prosecutors to essentially publish a document if they wanted to use it as evidence. Worse, defendants could essentially threaten to reveal classified information on the witness stand, by, say, claiming PTSD as a defense and citing classified military plans as proof of their claims.

Under CIPA, there are procedures to either show the jury classified evidence but restrict the way it's discussed in open court, or not show jurors that evidence, but to have a government witness testify about it. (Don't faint, but Trump's recently quitfired attorney Timothy Parlatore lied his ass off about this law when he went on TV to talk about it.) The law also provides for immediate appellate review of any trial judge's decision regarding classified evidence, something which is virtually guaranteed to take place here when there is so much classified evidence at issue. And not to put too fine a point on it, but last time this case was before Judge Cannon, she ordered the DOJ to hand over all classified documents to Trump's attorneys — so it's pretty clear that there will be significant litigation over CIPA, necessitating multiple field trips to the Eleventh Circuit. (Others have pointed out that the 31 separate charges allow for some to be dismissed if the court orders their disclosure, without jeopardizing the case as a whole.)

But even aside from the issue of classified evidence, we are talking about Donald Freakin' Trump here. This is a guy who spams the docket with garbage civil suits and who has infinity griftbucks to pay his lawyers, thanks to the rubes who donate to his PACs. He has every reason to delay this trial in hopes that he can get himself back into the White House and immediately lock the prosecutors in Gitmo — or at the very least issue himself a full pardon at 12: 01 p.m. on January 20, 2025.

In the meantime, Judge Cannon and Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart have issued multiple rulings already. Last week Judge Cannon ordered Trump's lawyers to seek expedited security clearances from the government. This may pose a problem for Chris Kise, the former Florida solicitor general who was recently a registered lobbyist for Venezuela, something which would ordinarily preclude him from gaining access to classified materials. But even in the best of circumstances, this process would ordinarily take several weeks, if not months. And Trump's body man Waltine Nauta still hasn't even found a lawyer admitted to practice in Florida, much less one with a security clearance.

And on Friday the government requested a routine protective order for the non-classified evidence in this case, with the assent of Trump and Nauta's lawyers. The order requires the attorneys to restrict access to anything turned over by the government in discovery and only allow the defendants to examine the evidence under supervision. It specifically forbids the publication of any discovery materials, including on social media, or sharing it with third parties. Judge Reinhart signed the order on Monday, something which was no doubt a relief to Trump's lawyers. Now they can tell their client that their hands are tied by the court, and they'll simply have to make him schlep down to their offices and look at the evidence there, and as much as they'd love to help him write his latest Truth Social post about whatever the government turned over, they just can't .  

In summary and in conclusion, you can safely disregard Judge Cannon's order setting the trial date in August. If this thing gets started before 2024, it'll be a goddamn miracle. The fuckery has not yet begun.

[ US v. Trump . Docket via Court Listener]

Catch Liz Dye on Opening Arguments podcast.

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