Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has opposed Donald Trump’s request for an indefinite postponement of his criminal trial over classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, saying some of the request of the former president “borders on the frivolous”.
“There is no basis in law or in fact for proceeding in such an indeterminate and overt manner, and the defendants provide none,” Assistant Special Counsel David Harbach wrote.
Trump and his personal valet, Walt Nauta, have pleaded not guilty to keeping national defense records after leaving the White House and conspiring to obstruct justice. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has set a tentative trial date for August 14, but Smith’s team argued that December 11 would give defense attorneys enough time to obtain security clearances and review evidence. .
Trump’s lawyers this week called for the case to be delayed indefinitely due to the voluminous evidence and arguing he could not get a fair trial during his 2024 presidential campaign. Trump’s lawyers also said the judges would make new decisions regarding the Presidential Records Act. because this is the first criminal case against a former president.
Prosecutors disagreed.
“With respect to the impact of the presidential records on this prosecution, any argument that it compels the dismissal of the indictment or constitutes a defense to the charges is frivolous,” Harbach wrote.
Cannon has scheduled a conference Tuesday for attorneys involved in the case.
Trump’s lawyers argued the evidence was too voluminous to review quickly. The government provided 833,450 pages of unclassified documents, including 122,650 emails and attachments and 305,670 files collected from 90 different repositories. Prosecutors also provided approximately nine months of CCTV footage.
But prosecutors said only about 4,500 of the 800,000 pages are “key documents”. Prosecutors also said defense claims about nine months of video footage are misleading because the government only used selected cameras.
Prosecutors said about 340 classified documents are at stake in the case and most will be moved to a secure reading room in Miami next week. Only two of Trump’s attorneys have applied for security clearances so far, prosecutors said.
If defense attorneys want to discuss new aspects of the case, prosecutors said they would respond quickly. Prosecutors have said the presidential campaign should not figure into determining the trial date.
“Many defendants have demanding jobs that require a lot of time and energy, or a lot of travel,” Harbach wrote.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DOJ urges court to maintain Dec. 11 trial date for Donald Trump