WASHINGTON: Former President Donald Trump’s trial over his alleged mishandling of classified documents will begin on May 20 next year, according to a US court order on Friday.

Trump’s lawyers had resisted setting a date but said any trial should take place after the November 2024 US presidential election, in which he is front-runner for the Republican nomination.

A Trump spokesperson said the trial schedule “allows president Trump and his legal team to continue fighting” the criminal case. A spokesperson for US Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office declined to comment.

Friday’s ruling came from US District Judge Aileen Cannon, who sits in Fort Pierce, Florida. Cannon was appointed as judge by Trump three years ago. Her assignment to the high-stakes trial has added another layer of controversy to the case, in which Trump is charged with 37 counts of wilfully keeping highly classified US documents in his Mar-a-Lago, Florida home, obstruction of justice and lying to federal law enforcement officials.

Some of the charges bring up to 20 years in prison, with Cannon to decide the sentencing if a jury finds Trump guilty. It remains to be seen how Cannon will accommodate the courtroom requirements and election campaign needs of the man who gave her the job.

Trump was indicted on June 8 where he has pleaded not guilty.

Federal prosecutors had asked Cannon to schedule the trial for December.

Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University, said the presiding judge wields enormous power over a trial and plays a critical role in how it unfolds.

“Even in a run of the mill case, the judge can have a significant and sometimes even dispositive effect on proceedings,” Richman said.

Others contend that Cannon will ensure that he gets a fair shake.

“It’s impossible now for Trump to complain that he’s got a judge that is biased against him,” said Edward Foley, a constitutional law professor at Ohio State University.

Thomas Holbrook, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said Cannon is in a “tough position.” “Almost no matter what she does, she’s going to either feed into existing concerns about her potential bias or disappoint Trump supporters,” Holbrook said.

The case is one of several legal woes Trump faces as he campaigns for 2024.

Trump is set to go to trial in Manhattan on March 25 on separate charges that he falsified business records to conceal a hush money payment to a porn star.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2023