The federal judge in Florida presiding over the classified documents prosecution of former US president Donald Trump has cancelled the May 20th trial date, postponing it indefinitely.
The order from US district judge Aileen Cannon had been expected in light of still-unresolved issues in the case and because Mr Trump is currently on trial in a separate case in Manhattan charging him in connection with hush money payments during the 2016 presidential election.
The New York case involves several of the same lawyers representing him in the federal case in Florida.
Ms Cannon said in a five-page order on Tuesday that it would be “imprudent” to finalise a new trial date now, casting further doubt on federal prosecutors’ ability to bring Mr Trump to trial before the November presidential election.
Mr Trump faces dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents that he took with him after he left the White House in 2021 at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
He is also accused of then obstructing the FBI’s efforts to get the documents back.
He has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Mr Trump faces four criminal cases as he seeks to reclaim the White House, but outside of the New York prosecution, it is not clear whether any of the other three will reach trial before the election.
The US supreme court is weighing Mr Trump’s arguments that he is immune from federal prosecution in a separate case from special counsel Jack Smith charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia have also brought a separate case related to election subversion, though it is not clear when that might reach trial. - PA