But while Judge Cannon’s stated reason for putting off the trial indefinitely was that a large number of legal issues remain up in the air, she never mentioned that she herself helped allow the logjam of motions to pile up.
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…some of the material he was found to have kept included information about military plans and American nuclear capabilities.
…in March…Trump’s lawyers told her that they could be ready to go to trial in August if necessary, Judge Cannon made no further decisions about scheduling matters until her order issued on Tuesday. [May 7]
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As part of her order on Tuesday, Judge Cannon, who was placed on the bench by Mr. Trump in his waning days in office, laid out a series of hearings and filing deadlines that reached into late July. …
Throughout the case, Judge Cannon has given Mr. Trump’s legal team wide berth in defending him, often granting an audience to legal motions that many federal judges would have rejected out of hand or decided on the merits of written filings alone.
One of the most surprising hearings she included in her newly issued calendar was a three-day proceeding in late June to decide who should be considered as part of the prosecution team.
In January, Mr. Trump’s lawyers filed court papers suggesting that a vast swath of the U.S. national security establishment — including top intelligence and defense officials — were part of the team.
The point of that move by Mr. Trump’s team was to seek additional discovery information about any contacts that those officials may have had with prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith. Mr. Trump’s lawyers were seeking to bolster their defense strategy that members of the so-called “deep state” had colluded in bringing the classified documents case against Mr. Trump.
Judge Cannon also scheduled a separate but potentially explosive hearing in late May to consider arguments about whether Mr. Smith had launched what is known as a “selective and vindictive prosecution” against Mr. Trump’s co-defendant, Walt Nauta.
The hearing is likely to include Mr. Trump’s own claims of selective prosecution because Mr. Nauta, one of his personal aides, included them in his own filing.
…Another significant aspect of Judge Cannon’s new schedule was her decision to postpone until mid-June the deadline for Mr. Trump’s lawyers to submit a critical filing containing a detailed inventory of the classified materials that they intend to introduce at the trial.
That inventory is consequential because it will set in motion what will eventually be a pitched battle between the defense and prosecution over what sorts of classified materials the jury will hear about — a fight that will involve balancing issues of public access and national security, and that could take months to complete.
The initial filing deadline for that inventory was supposed to have been Thursday, but late on Monday night, Judge Cannon set aside that date without picking a new one.
Her decision came directly after Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked again for the deadline to be pushed back…
