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Donald Trump is once again asking a federal judge to delay the trial over his alleged mishandling of classified documents until after the 2024 presidential election—but, if he must, he can stomach an Aug. 12 start date.
The surprise admission by the former president’s lawyers comes as a response to a request by special counsel Jack Smith’s office to start the trial on July 8. The dueling proposals were filed Thursday evening ahead of a Friday hearing by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce, Florida, where she is widely expected to wipe the previously slated May 20 start date off the schedule.
That said, Trump’s attorneys spent the vast majority of their 8-page filing arguing that the former president could not possibly be expected to get a fair trial this calendar year, given his status “as the presumptive Republican nominee and President Biden’s chief political rival.”