Judge sets Aug. 14 start for Trump secret documents trial, but legal experts are skeptical

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said Tuesday that the federal criminal trial of former President Donald Trump will start "during the two-week period commencing Aug. 14, 2023, or as soon thereafter as the case may be called." Cannon said she plans to hold the trial on Trump's 37 felony counts at her home courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.
The Justice Department is accusing Trump of willfully retaining national security secrets and conspiring to obstruct the government's attempts to get the documents back. Legal experts said the trial will almost certainly not begin in August, in part because it deals with classified evidence. Prosecutors, Trump's lawyers and the judge will have to negotiate how much classified material to release and show the jury, and it can also take months for Trump's lawyers, whoever they end up being, to get security clearances, as Cannon ordered.
"This case is not going to trial in August," former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams said on CNN. Cannon "sort of had to do that" to respect Trump's speedy-trial rights, "but it's not uncommon for judges to set that date and then push it forward." New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman added she thinks "the judge is very keen on not being seen as the person who is holding this up."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the investigation, said he wants a speedy trial, and Cannon suggested she agrees. "But it is not clear that the defense wants the case to proceed quickly," the Times reported. "Trump's strategy in legal matters has long been to delay them, and the federal case against him is unlikely to be an exception." If the trial lasts past the 2024 election, Trump has a shot at winning and pardoning himself or directing the attorney general to drop the case.
Trump's team is expected to file a flurry of pretrial motions, to get the case thrown out by claiming prosecutorial misconduct or unfair treatment and to suppress evidence, especially the notes by Trump's former lawyer Evan Corcoran. "Unless there have been communications that we do not know about and the government has streamlined the usual process and the defense has agreed to that process — this schedule is going to change," former Justice Department lawyer David Aaron told The Washington Post.
The quick prospective trial date "signals that the court is at least trying to do everything it can to move the case along and that it's important that the case proceed quickly," former federal prosecutor Brandon Van Grack told the Times. "Even though it's unlikely to hold, it's at least a positive signal — positive in the sense that all parties and the public should want this case to proceed as quickly as possible."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
China: Xi seeks to fill America’s void
Feature Trump’s tariffs are pushing nations eastward as Xi Jinping focuses on strengthening ties with global leaders
-
Rebrands: Bringing back the War Department
Feature Trump revives the Department of Defense’s former name
-
Supreme Court: Will it allow Trump’s tariffs?
Feature Justices fast-track Trump’s appeal to see if his sweeping tariffs are unconstitutional
-
Supreme Court: Will it allow Trump’s tariffs?
Feature Justices fast-track Trump’s appeal to see if his sweeping tariffs are unconstitutional
-
Venezuela: Was Trump’s air strike legal?
Feature A Trump-ordered airstrike targeted a speedboat off the coast of Venezuela, killing all 11 passengers on board
-
3 killed in Trump’s second Venezuelan boat strike
Speed Read Legal experts said Trump had no authority to order extrajudicial executions of noncombatants
-
Is Kash Patel’s fate sealed after Kirk shooting missteps?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The FBI’s bungled response in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting has director Kash Patel in the hot seat
-
Russian drone tests Romania as Trump spins
Speed Read Trump is ‘resisting congressional plans to impose newer and tougher penalties on Russia’s energy sector’
-
Trump renews push to fire Cook before Fed meeting
Speed Read The push to remove Cook has ‘quickly become the defining battle in Trump’s effort to take control of the Fed’
-
Will Donald Trump’s second state visit be a diplomatic disaster?
Today's Big Question Charlie Kirk shooting, Saturday’s far-right rally and continued Jeffrey Epstein fallout ramps-up risks of already fraught trip
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-war
Talking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’