Why Trump is desperately trying to delay his classified documents trial

In a late-night filing Monday, Donald Trump’s attorneys pushed for his trial in the federal classified documents case to be delayed until after the 2024 election. The court filing, submitted on behalf of Trump and his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, reads: “Proceeding to trial during the pendency of a Presidential election cycle wherein opposing candidates are effectively (if not literally) directly adverse to one another in this action will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process and limit the Defendants’ ability to secure a fair and impartial adjudication.”

In other words, the Trump team is suggesting that its clients won’t be able to get a fair trial and so the only option here is to push the trial until after the election. What the Trump team isn’t saying is that if Trump wins next year and then uses the levers of government at his disposal, he could push to absolve himself of any and all accountability. Maybe he pardons himself. Maybe the 25th Amendment is invoked and the vice president takes over and pardons him. Maybe Trump relies on a corrupt attorney general to scuttle the Justice Department’s own case against him.

Are these options all legally dubious? Of course. But then again, so was trying to get the vice president to unilaterally determine the winner of the 2020 election, and that sure didn’t deter Trump. Whatever avenue he takes, the overarching strategy is clear: The point of waiting until after the election isn’t to get a fair trial; it is to kill the trial.

Clearly, there’s no way for us to know whether the judge presiding over this case, Aileen Cannon, will rule in Trump’s favor or not. But I would offer that if she did opt to grant the Trump team this request, the corruption would be astounding. It would be a gift to Trump so obvious that she’d practically have no choice but to deliver it with a bow.

Cannon had claimed in the lead-up to this trial that Trump deserved special treatment, saying, “As a function of Plaintiff’s former position as President of the United States, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own.” In other words, no one is above the law … except, apparently, when Judge Cannon decides that a former president is.

It was a ruling so erroneous that the conservative 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rebuked her in about as clear a refutation as you could find. But that move by Cannon would pale in comparison to the prospect of her actually granting this request by the Trump team to delay the trial until after the election — the purpose of which is beyond clear.

Even if Trump doesn’t get the postponement he and his team are seeking, that doesn’t mean his attorneys won’t still try to delay this trial with a raft of pretrial motions, most likely for that express purpose. As of now, the Justice Department has requested a Dec. 11 trial date, but the Trump team opposed that request, not because it is too far out, but because it hopes instead for something later. If it can’t get Cannon to agree to its post-election delay, it is still certain to try to introduce motion after motion to try to secure a delay through other means.

And, of course, let’s not forget why the Trump team is so desperate to avoid this trial: because Trump has no defense. The fact is that we know Trump stole classified documents, that he refused to return them when asked, that he defied subpoenas from the National Archives, that he had his lawyer issue a false attestation claiming that all of the documents had been returned, that the FBI eventually executed a search warrant that turned up everything he pretended not to have, and that he was even recorded admitting to being in possession of classified documents. 

Look, if I was in Donald Trump’s shoes, I’d probably do everything I could to delay this trial, too, because once it begins, it’s highly unlikely he’ll figure out a way to avoid conviction.