Jack Smith is urging the judge in Donald Trump’s classified documents case not to let extra charges filed last week push back the former president’s trial date.
Trump is currently set to stand trial beginning on May 20 next year, but his former attorney Thomas Parlatore said Sunday that extra charges brought last week, combined with the indictment of a second codefendant, could delay it until after the election.
Smith filed a notice with Judge Aileen Cannon arguing that the new filings shouldn’t “disturb” the schedule and that his team was taking steps to “ensure that it does not do so,” Bloomberg reported Monday.
He promised to “promptly” turn over evidence relating to the new charges, that claim Trump obstructed the FBI’s investigation by attempting to conceal surveillance footage. Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira was also charged.
De Oliveira appeared in a Florida court Monday and was released on a $100,000 bond.
The trial date is significant because many analysts have suggested that Trump wants to delay the trial because he believes he will be able to stop it if he's president, or even pardon himself if he's convicted.
