Trump seeks to delay Mar-a-Lago case until after 2024 election

Former President Trump’s legal team is asking a Florida judge to delay his trial in the Mar-a-Lago case until “at least mid-November 2024,” which would put it beyond next year’s presidential election.

The request from Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, comes amid complaints from his legal team about the amount of classified evidence they’ve been able to review in the case, as well as their workload, as they manage numerous indictments filed against the former president.

The attorneys say they have yet to get access to all classified evidence underpinning charges in a superseding indictment that accused Trump of an additional Espionage Act charge and of trying to delete security camera footage from his Florida home.

Trump’s team also complains that it “only has access to a small, temporary facility in Miami” to view the highly classified records. It must visit the facility in person while managing hearing dates for Trump’s trial on allegations he sought to block the transfer of power after losing the 2020 election.

“The March 4, 2023 trial date in the District of Columbia, and the underlying schedule in that case, currently require President Trump and his lawyers to be in two places at once,” Trump’s attorneys, Christopher Kise and Todd Blanche, wrote in the filing.

Trump is set to face trial on the classified records case in May.

In that fight, the former president’s attorneys are also sparring with special counsel Jack Smith’s team over deadlines for filing motions related to classified evidence.

The special counsel’s office has fought Trump’s attempts to delay the Mar-a-Lago trial, writing in a previous filing that his proposal “threatens to upend the entire schedule established by the Court and that amounts to a motion to continue the May 20, 2024 trial date.”

They’ve similarly fought Trump efforts to delay deadlines in his Jan. 6 case.

In Florida, Trump is facing 32 counts for violation of the Espionage Act for mishandling records as well as numerous other charges relating to obstruction of justice in blocking their return to authorities.